La cooperativa de ahorro y crédito está cerca.

to be

Breakdown of La cooperativa de ahorro y crédito está cerca.

• cerca: near
• la cooperativa de ahorro y crédito: the credit union

Questions & Answers about La cooperativa de ahorro y crédito está cerca.

Why does the sentence start with la?

La is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.

It is used because cooperativa is:

• singular
• feminine

So:

• la cooperativa = the cooperative

In Spanish, nouns usually need an article more often than in English, especially when talking about a specific place or thing.

Why is cooperativa feminine?

It is feminine because cooperativa is a feminine noun. In many cases, nouns ending in -a are feminine, and this is one of them.

Because it is feminine, other words connected to it must match:

• la cooperativa
• está cerca does not change for gender, but the article does

If it were a masculine noun, you would expect el instead of la.

What does cooperativa de ahorro y crédito literally mean?

Literally, it breaks down like this:

• cooperativa = cooperative
• de ahorro = of savings / for savings
• y = and
• crédito = credit

So the full phrase is something like:

• cooperative of savings and credit

In natural English, this is usually understood as a credit union or a savings and credit cooperative, depending on the context.