Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): La protección es importante para la salud mental. - Protection is important for mental health.

In Spanish, abstract nouns like protección often require a definite article when talking about them in a general sense. Unlike English (“Protection is important”), Spanish uses la protección to refer to the concept of protection as a whole.

Why does protección have an accent on the “ó”?

The accent mark shows where to place the stress. In protección the stress falls on the last syllable (pro-tec-CIÓN). Without the accent, Spanish pronunciation rules would incorrectly shift the stress to the penultimate syllable.

Why is the verb es used instead of está?

Spanish has two verbs meaning “to be”: ser (es) and estar (está). Ser is used for inherent characteristics, definitions, and general truths. Since “being important” is considered a stable, essential quality of protection, we use es rather than está, which implies a temporary state.

Why do we use para instead of por in para la salud mental?

Para indicates purpose or intended recipient (“for the sake of mental health”). Por often expresses cause, exchange, or duration (“because of,” “in exchange for,” etc.). Here, you want to say that protection benefits or is intended for mental health, so you choose para.

Why is mental placed after salud? In English we say “mental health,” with “mental” first.

In Spanish, adjectives generally come after the noun they describe. Salud (health) is the noun and mental is the adjective specifying which kind of health, so you get salud mental, not mental salud.

Why is there a definite article before salud mental too?

Just like protección, salud used as an abstract or uncountable noun takes a definite article when speaking in general. So you say la salud mental to refer to the concept of mental health overall.

Could I use the infinitive proteger instead of the noun protección?

You could say Proteger es importante para la salud mental, but it sounds less natural. Spanish prefers turning actions into nouns (nominalization) when making general statements: la protección fits better than “to protect.”

Why are protección and salud feminine nouns?

Noun gender in Spanish often follows patterns you have to memorize. Many words ending in -ción (like protección) and -ud (like salud) are feminine. That’s why they take the article la.