Breakdown of Mi prima estudia biología y siempre habla de animales interesantes.
Questions & Answers about Mi prima estudia biología y siempre habla de animales interesantes.
Spanish makes a gender distinction for cousin that English doesn’t:
- mi prima = my female cousin
- mi primo = my male cousin
The word prima is feminine (ends in -a), and primo is masculine (ends in -o).
The possessive mi doesn’t change for gender (it’s the same for masculine and feminine singular nouns), so the only thing that shows the cousin is female is the -a in prima.
Spanish uses the simple present much more than English does.
- Mi prima estudia biología can mean:
- My cousin studies biology (general fact / field of study),
- and also often covers is studying biology (what she is doing with her life right now).
You would use está estudiando biología when you really want to stress the action as something happening right now or during this period, e.g.:
- Ahora mismo está estudiando biología para el examen.
Right now she is studying biology for the exam.
But for her major or what she does in general, estudia biología is the normal, natural choice.
With school subjects and fields of study, Spanish often omits the article after certain verbs, especially:
- estudiar (to study)
- enseñar (to teach)
- aprender (to learn)
So you usually say:
- Estudio biología. – I study biology.
- Ella enseña matemáticas. – She teaches math.
You do use the article when the subject is the topic or general concept, not something being studied:
- La biología es interesante. – Biology is interesting.
- Me gusta la biología. – I like biology.
In this sentence, biología is what she studies as a subject, so there’s no la.
Biología is spelled with an accent on the í to show where the stress falls: bio-lo-GÍ-a.
- Without the accent, the stress would normally fall on the o (bio-LO-gia), which would be wrong.
- The accent tells you to stress the í: bio-lo-GÍ-a.
Approximate pronunciation (Latin America):
- bio- like “BYO” (one syllable: byo)
- -lo- like “loh”
- -gí- like “HEE” (with a soft g like h in English he)
- -a like “ah”
So roughly: byo-lo-HEE-ah.
Both are grammatically correct:
- …y siempre habla de animales interesantes.
- …y habla siempre de animales interesantes.
In practice:
- siempre usually comes before the conjugated verb:
- Siempre habla de…
- Siempre come tarde.
Putting siempre after the verb (habla siempre) is possible and still natural here; sometimes it can sound a bit more emphatic or stylistic, but the meaning is essentially the same: she always talks about….
The version in the sentence (siempre habla) is simply the most common word order.
In Spanish, the verb hablar usually needs a preposition when you say what someone talks about.
- hablar de + thing = to talk about something
- Habla de animales interesantes. – She talks about interesting animals.
You cannot say:
- ✗ Habla animales interesantes.
That sounds like “She speaks interesting animals,” which is ungrammatical and nonsensical.
Compare:
- Habla inglés. – She speaks English. (Here inglés is a language, so no de.)
- Habla de inglés. – She talks about English. (Now it’s a topic, so you need de.)
In your sentence, animals are the topic, not a language, so you must use de.
Yes, these are also correct and very natural:
- Habla de animales interesantes.
- Habla sobre animales interesantes.
- Habla acerca de animales interesantes.
Differences:
- de is the most common and neutral choice in everyday speech.
- sobre often translates as about/regarding and can sound a bit more formal or “topic-like,” but it’s completely normal in conversation.
- acerca de is also fine, sometimes a bit more formal or written.
In Latin American everyday conversation, hablar de is the most frequent.
In Spanish, adjectives usually come after the noun:
- animales interesantes – interesting animals
- un libro aburrido – a boring book
- una casa grande – a big house
Putting the adjective before the noun is possible but often:
- Sounds more poetic, literary, or emphatic, or
- Changes the nuance or meaning.
For example:
- un gran hombre ≈ a great man (moral quality, figurative)
- un hombre grande = a big man (physical size)
With interesantes animales, it could sound poetic or like you are emphasizing the animals as interesting ones in a stylistic way. The neutral, standard way is animales interesantes.
Adjectives in Spanish must agree in number (singular/plural) with the noun, and usually also in gender (masculine/feminine).
- animal (singular) → interesante (singular)
- animales (plural) → interesantes (plural)
Here, animales is plural, so interesantes must also be plural (add -s).
For gender:
- Adjectives ending in -e (like interesante) usually have the same form for masculine and feminine. Only number changes:
- un animal interesante (masc. sing.)
- una planta interesante (fem. sing.)
- dos animales interesantes
- dos plantas interesantes
So in this sentence, you only see the plural agreement.
Yes, both are correct, but they focus slightly different things:
Mi prima estudia biología.
- States what she studies / is majoring in.
- Focus on the activity of studying that subject.
Mi prima es estudiante de biología.
- States her role/status: she is a biology student.
- Focus on her identity as a student.
In everyday speech, both are very common and would usually be understood the same way in context.
Grammatically, yes:
- Ella estudia biología y siempre habla de animales interesantes.
However, in natural discourse you usually:
- Introduce the person with a noun: Mi prima estudia biología…
- Then, in following sentences, you can switch to ella:
- Mi prima estudia biología. Ella siempre habla de animales interesantes.
If the listener already knows who you’re talking about (from previous context), starting with Ella… is fine. If it’s the first mention, Mi prima… is clearer.