"Ellos ponen el pan en la mesa."

I've noticed that Duo translates "en la mesa" as "on the table", and "sobre la mesa" as "on top of the table".

guess it's like when you say you went "on" a roller coaster ride? but in reality you went "in" it? interchangeable words but on is said more commonly in the situation I presented so it sounds better?

also wondering this

Yeah, I was thinking the Spanish "pan" is used in this sentence the same way the English "bacon" would be used in "Someone's got to put the bacon on the table".

It's not. Report it.

That would be: "Ellos están poniendo pan en la mesa."

• ponen = they put (simple present)
• están poniendo = they are putting (present participle)
• pan = bread (unspecific)
• el pan = the bread (specific)

I wonder the same thing. I understand that the article is common Spanish (right?), but it may or may not be in English. No one would question it one way or the other as a translation, but check me if I'm wrong.

That is why I am here, trying to find out why that is wrong. Use of the articles is giving me a lot of trouble. When to used it in Spanish and when to translate it top English. I also left out "the" in front of "bread", and was counted wrong.

thebrennagade- In this case when there,s the article, it's because it's a specific bread, if you omit the article it's like saying that they put some bread, which means it could be any kind of bread.

You don't need to say 'onto' here. 'On' is perfectly correct in this context.

'En' se puede traducir a 'in' o 'on' según contexto. Aquí la palabra 'on' se traduce a 'en'.