Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Mi hermano dice que ese vestido es bonito, pero a ella le parece demasiado formal. - My brother says that that dress is pretty, but to her it seems too formal.

Mi hermano dice que… = My brother says that… / My brother is saying that… (general, neutral)
Mi hermano está diciendo que… emphasizes that he is in the middle of saying it right now, at this very moment. It’s less common for general opinions.

For opinions, habits, or what someone generally says/thinks, Spanish prefers the simple present:

Mi hermano dice que ese vestido es bonito.
My brother says (thinks) that that dress is pretty.

Why do we need “que” in “dice que ese vestido es bonito”?

In Spanish, when you report what someone says, thinks, believes, etc., you almost always introduce the reported clause with que.

Structure:

[Person] + [verb of saying/thinking] + que + [what is said/thought]

Examples:

Ella dice que viene mañana. – She says (that) she’s coming tomorrow.
Creen que es verdad. – They believe (that) it’s true.

So:

Mi hermano dice que ese vestido es bonito.
Literally: My brother says that that dress is pretty.

In English the “that” is optional; in Spanish que is normally required.

What’s the difference between “ese vestido”, “este vestido”, and “aquel vestido”?

They’re all demonstrative adjectives meaning “this/that,” and they show distance:

este vestido – this dress (close to the speaker)
ese vestido – that dress (a bit farther, often near the listener or not very close to either)
aquel vestido – that dress (over there) (far from both speaker and listener, or more distant in space/time)

In everyday Latin American Spanish:

este = near me
ese = not near me, more neutral “that”
aquel is used, but less frequently in casual speech; ese often covers a lot of “that over there” situations.

In the sentence, ese vestido suggests a specific dress that both people know about, but it’s not right here with the speaker.

Why is it “ese vestido es bonito” and not “ese vestido es bonita”?

Adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

vestido is masculine singular.
bonito is the masculine singular form of the adjective.

So:

el vestido bonito (masc. sing.)
los vestidos bonitos (masc. plural)
la falda bonita (fem. sing.)
las faldas bonitas (fem. plural)

Using bonita with vestido would be a gender mismatch.

Could we say “ese vestido bonito” instead of “ese vestido es bonito”? What’s the difference?

They are grammatically different:

Ese vestido es bonito.
- Full sentence with a verb (es).
- Means: That dress is pretty.
Ese vestido bonito (without a verb)
- Just a noun phrase, not a complete sentence.
- Could mean that pretty dress (used inside a larger sentence).
- Example: Compré ese vestido bonito. – I bought that pretty dress.

So:

To state a fact about the dress: use es bonito.
To describe the dress before a noun in a longer sentence: you can say ese vestido bonito.

What does “a ella le parece” literally mean? Why not just “ella piensa”?

The verb parecer means “to seem / to appear (to someone)”.

Structure:

A + person + indirect object pronoun (me/te/le/nos/les) + parece + [something]

Literally:

A ella le parece demasiado formal.
= To her, it seems too formal.

Compared to pensar:

Ella piensa que es demasiado formal. = She thinks it’s too formal.
(more direct “she thinks/believes”)
A ella le parece demasiado formal. = To her, it seems too formal.
(feels a bit more like a subjective impression or opinion)

Both are opinions, but parecer in this structure is very common and often slightly softer or more subjective in tone.

Why do we have both “a ella” and “le” in “a ella le parece”? Isn’t one enough?

The indirect object pronoun (le) is required with this kind of parecer construction.

Le parece demasiado formal. – It seems too formal to her/him/you (formal).

a ella is optional and used for:

clarifying who le refers to (since le could mean to him / to her / to you (formal)),
or adding emphasis.

So:

Le parece demasiado formal. – It seems too formal to her/him.
A ella le parece demasiado formal. – To her, it seems too formal (clarifying/emphasizing “her,” not him, etc.).

You almost never drop le; you drop or keep a ella depending on whether you need clarity or emphasis.

Why isn’t it “ella lo parece demasiado formal” instead of “a ella le parece demasiado formal”?

That structure doesn’t work in Spanish; parecer doesn’t behave like “to seem” plus a direct object in the same way English “seem” can.

Correct Spanish structure is:

[Indirect object] + [IO pronoun] + parece + [adjective / noun phrase]

Examples:

A mí me parece caro. – It seems expensive to me.
A ellos les parece una buena idea. – It seems like a good idea to them.

Lo is a direct object pronoun, which parecer does not take in this meaning.

So “ella lo parece demasiado formal” is incorrect; you need:

A ella le parece demasiado formal.

Why is it “demasiado formal” and not “demasiada formalidad”? How does “demasiado” work here?

Here, demasiado is an adverb meaning “too”.

Pattern:

demasiado + adjective/adverb = too + adjective/adverb
- demasiado caro – too expensive
- demasiado rápido – too fast
- demasiado formal – too formal

When demasiado goes before a noun, it works as an adjective and agrees:

demasiado dinero – too much money (masc. sing.)
demasiada formalidad – too much formality (fem. sing.)
demasiados vestidos – too many dresses (masc. pl.)
demasiadas reglas – too many rules (fem. pl.)

In the sentence we’re describing how the dress is (formal), so:

demasiado formal = too formal, not too much formality.

Why doesn’t “formal” change form here? Should it be “formala” or something for “her”?

Adjectives agree with the noun they describe, not with the person who has the opinion.

The adjective formal describes el vestido (masculine singular), not ella.
Many adjectives ending in -al (like formal) have the same form for masculine and feminine in the singular:
- un vestido formal – a formal dress (masc. sing.)
- una reunión formal – a formal meeting (fem. sing.)

Plural forms:

vestidos formales – formal dresses
reuniones formales – formal meetings

There is no form “formala” in Spanish. The correct form is formal for both masculine and feminine singular.

Why is it “pero” and not “sino” in “pero a ella le parece…”?

Both pero and sino can translate as “but”, but they’re used differently.

Use pero to add contrasting information:

Me gusta, pero es caro. – I like it, but it’s expensive.

Use sino to correct or replace a negative statement:

No es caro, sino barato. – It’s not expensive, but (rather) cheap.
No quiere café, sino té. – He doesn’t want coffee, but tea.

In the sentence:

Mi hermano dice que ese vestido es bonito, pero a ella le parece demasiado formal.

The second part doesn’t correct the first; it just contrasts his opinion vs her opinion. So pero is correct, not sino.

Who is the grammatical subject of “parece” in “a ella le parece demasiado formal”?

Grammatically, the subject of parece is what seems formal, even if it’s not explicitly repeated.

Expanded, it’s like:

A ella le parece demasiado formal ese vestido.
Here, ese vestido is the subject of parece.

Structure:

A ella = indirect object phrase (“to her”)
le = indirect object pronoun (to her)
parece = verb (3rd person singular)
demasiado formal = complement describing the subject
(ese vestido) = subject (can be omitted if it’s already clear from context)

So:

Verb agrees with the thing that seems a certain way, not with a ella. That’s why it’s parece, not parecen, and not parezco/pareces.