Breakdown of La película comienza con una escena interesante.
con
with
interesante
interesting
una
a
la película
the movie
la escena
the scene
comenzar
to start
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Questions & Answers about La película comienza con una escena interesante.
Why is there a definite article la before película? In English we often say “Movie begins…” without the.
Spanish normally requires a definite article before a singular, specific noun when you’re talking about “the movie.” Unlike English headlines or titles, the sentence needs la película to mark “the movie” as the subject.
Can I replace comienza with empieza here?
Yes. comenzar and empezar are synonyms meaning “to begin/start.” comienza feels slightly more formal or literary, while empieza is very common in everyday speech. Both give the same idea.
Why is the verb in the present tense (comienza) instead of past tense?
Spanish (like English) often uses the simple present to describe film plots or to give a “running commentary” on a story. It’s called the narrative present. Even if you’re talking about a finished movie, you still say La película comienza… rather than La película comenzó….
Why do we use con before una escena interesante? Couldn’t we say “begins by/with”?
The verb phrase comenzar con literally means “to begin with” something. You cannot say comenzar por + noun in Spanish—comenzar por is used only when it’s followed by an infinitive (verb), e.g. comenzar por explicar. So for a noun you always use comenzar con.
Why is there an indefinite article una before escena? Would la escena interesante work?
Using una escena interesante means “an interesting scene,” one among possibly many. If you said la escena interesante, you’d be referring to one specific, already-known scene (“the interesting scene”), which changes the meaning.
Why is the adjective interesante placed after the noun escena? In English we say “interesting scene.”
Spanish normally puts descriptive adjectives after nouns: escena interesante. You can sometimes place an adjective before the noun for poetic effect or emphasis (la interesante escena), but the default order is noun–adjective.
Why doesn’t interesante change its ending for the feminine noun escena?
Adjectives ending in -ante are invariable for gender. They remain interesante for masculine, feminine, singular, or plural (e.g. escenas interesantes).
How do I pronounce película, and why is there an accent on the í?
película is divided into four syllables: pe-lí-cu-la, stressed on the antepenultimate syllable lí. Spanish words ending in a vowel normally stress the penultimate syllable, so the written accent on í tells you to move the stress one syllable back (a proparoxytone). It sounds like “peh-LEE-koo-lah.”