El rascacielos es muy alto.

The skyscraper is very tall.

Breakdown of El rascacielos es muy alto.

• ser: to be
• muy: very
• el rascacielos: the skyscraper
• alto: tall

Questions & Answers about El rascacielos es muy alto.

Why does rascacielos use el if it ends in -s and looks plural?

Rascacielos is a compound noun (from rasca + cielos) that ends in -s but is grammatically singular here. Spanish has a few nouns like this.

• el rascacielos = the skyscraper (singular)
• los rascacielos = the skyscrapers (plural — the word itself does not change)

So the -s at the end does not automatically mean plural; the article (el / los) tells you whether it is singular or plural in this case.

How do you make rascacielos plural?

You do not change the noun itself; only the article changes:

• Singular: el rascacielos es muy alto – the skyscraper is very tall
• Plural: los rascacielos son muy altos – the skyscrapers are very tall

Notice:

• el → los
• es → son
• alto → altos

But rascacielos stays the same.

Why is it es muy alto and not está muy alto?