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butaca

nounIntermediate

What does “butaca” mean in English?

  1. 1.upholstered seat in a theatre or cinema

    upholstered seat in a theatre or cinema (reserved auditorium seat)

  2. 2.armchair in a domestic setting

    armchair in a domestic setting (la butaca del salón) — a comfortable upholstered seat for one person

Example sentences

  • Reservé dos butacas en primera fila porque quería que mi madre pudiera ver bien el escenario sin necesidad de estirarse.

    I reserved two front-row seats because I wanted my mother to be able to see the stage clearly without having to stretch.

  • Cuando llegamos, encontramos nuestras butacas ocupadas y tuvimos que pedirle al acomodador que les pidiera a los otros que se movieran.

    When we arrived, we found our seats taken and had to ask the usher to ask the others to move.

  • Prefiero las butacas del anfiteatro a las del patio de butacas porque desde arriba se ve todo el escenario sin obstrucciones.

    I prefer the circle seats to the stalls because from up there you can see the whole stage without obstructions.

How to use it

Butaca is a feminine noun (la butaca, las butacas) meaning a seat in a theatre, cinema, or concert hall — specifically a fixed upholstered seat in an auditorium. It contrasts with silla (a plain chair) in that butaca implies a purpose-built venue seat. Butaca also means an armchair in domestic contexts (la butaca del salón — the armchair in the living room), but the theatre/cinema sense dominates at B1 in the leisure-and-arts domain. Common collocations: reservar una butaca, ocupar su butaca, una butaca en primera fila, las butacas están ocupadas.

Common mistake

Butaca is venue-specific: use it for theatres and cinemas (not for chairs in a classroom or restaurant). El patio de butacas is the stalls (ground floor of a theatre) — a compound noun using butaca. In cinema contexts in Latin America, la butaca is more common than la localidad (seat).

Topics

Related Intermediate words

Reference

This entry’s teaching guidance follows Plan Curricular del Instituto Cervantes (Instituto Cervantes), B1 Nociones especificas.