Breakdown of Mi tía canta en un coro de adultos y debería invitarte a su próximo concierto.
Questions & Answers about Mi tía canta en un coro de adultos y debería invitarte a su próximo concierto.
In Spanish, accent marks (´) show which syllable is stressed when the word breaks the normal stress rules.
Basic rules:
- Words ending in a vowel, n, or s are normally stressed on the second-to-last syllable.
- Words ending in any other consonant are normally stressed on the last syllable.
tía
- Spelled: tí-a
- Ends in a vowel (a), so by default stress would be on ti anyway.
- But there’s a second reason: tía is a two-vowel sequence that looks like a diphthong (one combined sound), but we actually pronounce both vowels separately: tí-a, not tya.
The accent mark:- Forces the stress on tí-
- Breaks the vowels into two syllables instead of one.
próximo
- Ends in a vowel, so default stress would be on the second-to-last syllable: pró-xi-mo
That matches how we pronounce it (stress on pró), but the spelling rules require the accent because:- It’s pro
- ximo and without a written accent many speakers might be tempted to stress -xi- (pro-XI-mo).
- The language has fixed it with an accent: PRÓ-xi-mo.
- It’s pro
mi and coro
- mi (my) is only one syllable, so no accent is needed.
- coro ends in a vowel and is stressed on the second-to-last syllable by default: CO-ro, which is what we want—so no accent is needed.
Both forms exist, but they mean different things.
Mi tía canta en un coro de adultos =
Your aunt sings in an adult choir (regularly / as a habit / as an activity in her life).
This is the simple present describing a habitual activity or a general fact.Mi tía está cantando en un coro de adultos =
Your aunt is singing in an adult choir (right now / at this specific moment).
This is the present progressive, used mainly for actions in progress.
In English, we often say:
- “My aunt sings in a choir” (for the same habitual meaning as canta), or
- “My aunt is singing in a choir (right now)” (for está cantando).
So the sentence is using canta because we’re talking about what she does in general, not a one-time event at the moment of speaking.
The choice between un and el is like “a choir” vs “the choir” in English.
- en un coro de adultos = in a choir of adults (an unspecified choir; the exact group isn’t important to the sentence)
- en el coro de adultos = in the adult choir (a specific choir that has been mentioned or is known to both speaker and listener)
Here, we’re introducing the information for the first time and just describing your aunt’s activity, so un coro (indefinite) is more natural: she sings in an adult choir, not necessarily a particular one already known in the conversation.
Both are possible, but they say slightly different things.
coro de adultos
Literally: “choir of adults.”
This describes what the choir is made of: the members are adults.
It’s like saying “an adults’ choir.”coro para adultos
Literally: “choir for adults.”
This emphasizes who it is intended for or who it’s designed for, not necessarily describing who is currently in it.
In everyday speech:
- If you mean the members are adults, coro de adultos is the most natural.
- coro para adultos might be used in something like an advertisement:
- “Ofrecemos un coro para adultos y otro para niños.”
“We offer a choir for adults and another for children.”
- “Ofrecemos un coro para adultos y otro para niños.”
You could say coro adulto, but it sounds less natural and a bit unusual in everyday speech.
- coro de adultos is the standard, idiomatic way to say “adult choir / choir of adults.”
- coro adulto sounds more like you’re attributing the quality “adult” to the choir as a whole, but this isn’t how people normally phrase it.
In Spanish, when we mean “group of [type of people]”, we very often use:
- coro de adultos, grupo de estudiantes, equipo de profesionales, etc.
So, stick with coro de adultos.
Debería is the conditional form of deber and usually corresponds to “should / ought to” in English.
- Mi tía… debería invitarte =
“My aunt should invite you” / “My aunt ought to invite you.”
Nuance:
- debe invitarte = “she must invite you / has to invite you”
Stronger obligation. - debería invitarte = “she should invite you”
Softer: it’s a good idea, a recommendation, or what’s expected but not strictly required.
So in this sentence, debería expresses a recommendation or suggestion, not a strict rule.
Yes, both are correct:
- debería invitarte
- te debería invitar
They mean the same thing: “(she) should invite you.”
About pronoun placement:
- With a conjugated verb
- infinitive, you can put the pronoun:
- Before the conjugated verb:
- Te debería invitar.
- Attached to the infinitive:
- Debería invitarte.
- Before the conjugated verb:
- infinitive, you can put the pronoun:
Both are grammatically correct and very common in Latin American Spanish. In this sentence, debería invitarte is just one natural option; te debería invitar is equally fine.
Because of the pronoun -te.
Spanish object pronouns:
- me = me
- te = you (informal, singular)
- lo / la = him / her / it / you (formal, singular, depending on context)
- nos = us
- los / las = them / you all (formal in some places)
In invitarte:
- The verb is invitar (to invite).
- The attached pronoun te = you (informal, one person).
So invitarte = to invite you.
If it were invitarlo / invitarla, that would imply him / her / it / you (formal) depending on context.
In Spanish, many verbs use the preposition a before the thing or event you’re going to, invited to, etc.
- invitar a algo / a alguien = to invite to something / someone
- Te invito a mi fiesta. = I invite you to my party.
- Mi tía debería invitarte a su próximo concierto. =
My aunt should invite you to her next concert.
So:
- invitar
- a
- su próximo concierto
- a
If you remove a, it would sound wrong to a native speaker:
- ❌ debería invitarte su próximo concierto → not correct.
Think of invitar a as a fixed pattern: invite to.
Yes. Su is ambiguous in Spanish and can mean:
- his
- her
- its
- their
- your (formal: usted / ustedes)
In this sentence:
- We already mentioned mi tía (my aunt).
- So su próximo concierto is understood from context as “her next concert.”
If you needed to be extra clear (for example, in a longer text with multiple people), you could say something like:
- el próximo concierto de mi tía = my aunt’s next concert.
That removes the ambiguity.
In Spanish, many adjectives can go either before or after the noun, but the most natural, neutral position for próximo (“next”) is before the noun:
- su próximo concierto = her next concert (standard, natural)
- su concierto próximo is grammatically possible but sounds unusual or poetic and is not what people normally say.
In practice:
- “Next [event]” is almost always próximo + noun:
- el próximo año (next year)
- la próxima semana (next week)
- tu próximo examen (your next exam)
- su próximo concierto (her next concert)
Spanish requires agreement in gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) for nouns, articles, and adjectives.
un coro de adultos
- coro = masculine, singular → needs masculine singular article:
- un coro
- adultos = masculine, plural noun; it doesn’t have to agree with coro, because it refers to the people in the choir, not the choir itself:
- coro (masc. sing.) de adultos (masc. pl.)
- coro = masculine, singular → needs masculine singular article:
su próximo concierto
- concierto = masculine, singular
- su (his/her/their/your) doesn’t change for gender, but it does for number:
- su concierto (singular) vs sus conciertos (plural)
- próximo is an adjective describing concierto, so it must match:
- masc. sing. noun → masc. sing. adjective:
- próximo concierto
- if plural: sus próximos conciertos
- masc. sing. noun → masc. sing. adjective:
So we say:
- su próximo concierto (her next concert), not:
- ❌ su próxima concierto (wrong gender)
- ❌ sus próximo conciertos (article and adjective don’t match in number).