Breakdown of La psicóloga explica que el equilibrio emocional también afecta al cuerpo.
Questions & Answers about La psicóloga explica que el equilibrio emocional también afecta al cuerpo.
Psicólogo/psicóloga is a profession, and in Spanish most profession nouns have a masculine and a feminine form:
- el psicólogo = the (male) psychologist
- la psicóloga = the (female) psychologist
In this sentence, the psychologist is a woman, so the feminine article la and the feminine ending -a are used.
If you’re speaking in general about “psychologists” without specifying gender, many people still use the masculine plural los psicólogos, though some prefer gender‑inclusive forms in modern usage.
In Spanish, names of professions are normally not capitalized, even when referring to a specific person:
- la doctora Pérez (Dr. Pérez)
- el profesor Martínez (Professor Martínez)
- la psicóloga (the psychologist)
You only capitalize if the word is part of a proper name of an institution, title of a work, etc., like Facultad de Psicología (Faculty of Psychology).
Spanish often uses the simple present where English prefers the present continuous:
- La psicóloga explica que…
= The psychologist explains / is explaining that…
Explica (simple present) can mean:
- something happening right now, or
- something that happens regularly or generally (e.g., in her talks, in her practice).
Está explicando is also possible, but it strongly highlights the action as ongoing at this moment, which isn’t necessary here. The simple present is more neutral and more common in reported information like this.
In English you can often drop that:
- She explains (that) emotional balance also affects the body.
In Spanish, the conjunction que is normally required to introduce a subordinate clause:
- La psicóloga explica que el equilibrio emocional también afecta al cuerpo.
Without que, the sentence would be ungrammatical here. After many reporting verbs (decir, explicar, saber, pensar, creer, etc.), you almost always need que before the clause that follows.
Spanish uses definite articles much more often than English, especially with abstract nouns:
- el amor = love
- la paciencia = patience
- el equilibrio emocional = emotional balance
Here, el is natural because we’re talking about emotional balance in general as a concept, not about someone’s specific, individual balance at one moment.
In some phrases (especially titles, headlines, labels) you might see the article omitted, but in a normal sentence like this you usually keep el.
In Spanish, the normal order is:
- noun + adjective
So:
- equilibrio emocional = emotional balance
- coche nuevo = new car
- vida social = social life
Putting the adjective before the noun is possible in some cases, but it usually changes the nuance or sounds poetic/literary. Emocional equilibrio would sound wrong or at least very odd in standard speech.
También means also / too / as well. It adds the idea that emotional balance is another factor that affects the body, in addition to something previously mentioned or implied.
The most neutral position is before the verb:
- …el equilibrio emocional también afecta al cuerpo.
Other positions are possible, but with different emphasis:
También el equilibrio emocional afecta al cuerpo.
(Emphasizes emotional balance as an additional factor.)El equilibrio emocional afecta también al cuerpo.
(Emphasizes “also the body”, maybe in addition to the mind.)
The original word order is the most typical and neutral.
Two things are happening:
The preposition a
With afectar, you can sometimes see both:- afectar algo
- afectar a algo / a alguien
In practice, afectar a is very common, especially with people, body parts, health, etc.:
- afecta a la salud
- afecta al cuerpo
The contraction a + el = al
In Spanish, a + el always contracts to al:- a el cuerpo → al cuerpo
- a el médico → al médico
So afecta al cuerpo literally is afecta a el cuerpo, with the mandatory contraction.
Spanish often uses a definite article with body parts instead of a possessive, when it’s clear whose body we’re talking about:
- Me duele la cabeza. = My head hurts.
- Le lavan las manos. = They wash his/her hands.
- El equilibrio emocional afecta al cuerpo. = Emotional balance affects the body.
The possessor is usually obvious from context (here: human beings in general), so el cuerpo is normal and natural, not su cuerpo, unless you specifically want to contrast “her body vs. someone else’s body.”
The verb afectar appears here in the present indicative: afecta.
The subjunctive (afecte) is used after verbs that express doubt, desire, possibility, emotion, etc., or certain conjunctions. But explicar (to explain) is a verb of reporting information. It presents the statement as factual:
- La psicóloga explica que… el equilibrio emocional también afecta al cuerpo.
Because the speaker presents this as a fact (or as something the psychologist states as fact), the indicative is used. If the main verb were something like dudar (to doubt), no creer (to not believe), etc., then you would expect the subjunctive.
Accent marks show where the stress (spoken emphasis) falls when it doesn’t follow the normal rules.
Basic rules:
- Words ending in a vowel, n, or s are normally stressed on the second‑to‑last syllable.
- Words ending in other consonants are normally stressed on the last syllable.
psicóloga (ends in a vowel)
Normal stress would be: psi-CO-lo-ga
But we need: psi-CÓ-lo-ga (stress on -có-, third from the end), so we add an accent: psicóloga.también (ends in n)
Normal stress would be: TAM-bien
But we need: tam-BIÉN (stress on the last syllable), so we add an accent: también.
These accents are a key part of correct spelling and pronunciation.
In Spanish, the p in the cluster ps at the start of a word is silent:
- psicóloga → [see-KO-lo-ga] (approximate)
Syllable by syllable:
- psi → like si (see)
- có → “co” with stressed o
- lo → “lo”
- ga → “ga” (like “gah”)
So it’s roughly: si-KÓ-lo-ga, not like English “psy-” in psychologist.