Breakdown of La relación con mi familia es importante para mi salud mental.
Questions & Answers about La relación con mi familia es importante para mi salud mental.
In Spanish, abstract or general ideas are usually introduced with a definite article (el, la, los, las) more often than in English.
- La relación con mi familia ≈ The relationship with my family / My relationship with my family
- Saying just Relación con mi familia es importante sounds incomplete or ungrammatical to a native speaker.
You can sometimes drop the article in headlines, notes, or very telegraphic style (like bullet points), but in normal sentences you generally say:
- La paciencia es importante. – Patience is important.
- La salud mental es clave. – Mental health is key.
So La relación is the normal, natural form.
The prepositions con and de express different relationships:
- con = with → interaction, involvement, contact
- de = of, from → possession, origin, type
In this sentence, you’re talking about your relationship with your family, so interaction is the key idea:
- La relación con mi familia – The relationship with my family
If you said:
- La relación de mi familia
…it would sound like:
- the relationship of my family (their relationship with someone or something else)
and would usually need more information: - La relación de mi familia con los vecinos… – My family’s relationship with the neighbors…
Relación is a very general word in Spanish, just like relationship in English. The type of relationship is understood from context:
- relación de pareja – romantic relationship
- relación de amistad – friendship
- relación con mi familia – family relationship / how I get along with my family
In La relación con mi familia es importante para mi salud mental, it clearly means:
- how you get along with your family
- the quality and closeness of your bond with them
Grammatically, familia is singular feminine in Spanish:
- la familia – the family
- mi familia – my family
Even though a family is made up of multiple people, the word itself is singular, so:
- mi familia es grande – my family is big
(mi singular, familia singular, es singular)
You only use mis with plural nouns:
- mi hermano – my brother
- mis hermanos – my brothers
- mi familia – my family (singular noun)
Ser and estar both translate as to be, but they’re used differently.
- ser importante → describes an inherent or general characteristic
- estar importante → is almost never said; it sounds incorrect
Importance is not a temporary state; it’s considered a general quality:
- La relación con mi familia es importante.
The relationship with my family is important (by nature).
So you use es, not está.
Some adjectives in Spanish change with gender and number (e.g., bonito/bonita/bonitos/bonitas).
But adjectives that end in -e or -ista usually do not change for gender; they only change for number.
Importante works like this:
- Singular: importante
- El tema es importante.
- La relación es importante.
- Plural: importantes
- Los temas son importantes.
- Las relaciones son importantes.
So with la relación (feminine singular), the correct form is importante (not importanta).
Para and por can both mean for, but they’re used differently:
- para → purpose, goal, benefit, destination
- por → cause, motive, duration, exchange
Here, my mental health is the beneficiary or goal of the relationship:
- es importante para mi salud mental
= it’s important for my mental health / to my mental health
If you said:
- Es importante por mi salud mental.
…it would suggest:
- It is important because of my mental health (the mental health is the reason or cause), which is a bit awkward here and not the natural choice.
Para is the correct and most natural preposition.
- para mi salud mental – for my mental health (personalized, specific)
- para la salud mental – for mental health in general (more abstract or general statement)
Compare:
La relación con mi familia es importante para mi salud mental.
The relationship with my family is important for my own mental health.La relación con la familia es importante para la salud mental.
Family relationships are important for mental health in general.
Both are grammatically correct; they just communicate different scope (personal vs general).
Yes. Salud mental is the standard, widely used term for mental health. It’s very common in:
- everyday speech
- healthcare contexts
- media and education
Examples:
- Hablar de la salud mental es importante. – Talking about mental health is important.
- Estoy cuidando más mi salud mental. – I’m taking better care of my mental health.
Other phrases exist, like bienestar emocional (emotional well-being), but salud mental is the direct equivalent of mental health.
Yes, that’s perfectly correct, and very natural:
- Mi relación con mi familia es importante para mi salud mental.
The nuance:
La relación con mi familia…
sounds slightly more general or “the relationship I have with my family,” with the focus more on the concept of that relationship.Mi relación con mi familia…
puts clearer emphasis on my specific relationship with them.
In everyday conversation, Mi relación con mi familia… might actually sound more personal and typical.
Yes, that’s grammatically correct. Spanish allows some flexibility in word order.
La relación con mi familia es importante para mi salud mental.
(neutral word order, very standard)Es importante la relación con mi familia para mi salud mental.
(adds slight emphasis to es importante, like “What’s important is the relationship with my family…”)
The meaning is essentially the same; the second version can sound a bit more rhetorical or emphatic.
Pronunciation tips:
- relación: reh-lah-SYON (Latin America: the c before i = s sound)
- Stress is on the last syllable: -ción → relaCIÓN
Syllables: re-la-ción
- The accent mark on ó tells you the stress is there.
- The ción ending is always stressed in words like:
- nación, educación, conversación
Yes, several natural variants exist, for example:
La relación con mi familia es clave para mi salud mental.
(…is key for my mental health)Tener una buena relación con mi familia es importante para mi salud mental.
(Having a good relationship with my family is important…)El vínculo con mi familia es muy importante para mi salud mental.
(vínculo = bond, tie; a bit more emotional/formal)
All of these are common across Latin America. They differ slightly in tone (some more personal, some more formal), but the core idea is the same.