Breakdown of La terapeuta dice que es normal recordar momentos vergonzosos de la adolescencia.
Questions & Answers about La terapeuta dice que es normal recordar momentos vergonzosos de la adolescencia.
In Spanish, many profession nouns can be either masculine or feminine, depending on the person:
- el terapeuta = the (male) therapist
- la terapeuta = the (female) therapist
The word terapeuta itself ends in -a, but that does not automatically make it feminine in all cases. The article (el / la) is what tells you the gender of the person in this case.
So in this sentence, la terapeuta tells us the therapist is a woman. If the therapist were a man, it would be el terapeuta.
In Spanish, when a profession is the subject of the sentence, it normally takes a definite article:
- La terapeuta dice… = The therapist says…
- El médico piensa… = The doctor thinks…
- La profesora explica… = The teacher explains…
You usually omit the article with professions only after the verb ser:
- Ella es terapeuta. = She is a therapist.
- Él es médico. = He is a doctor.
But here terapeuta is not after ser; it’s the subject at the beginning of the sentence, so you use la terapeuta.
These are two different meanings:
La terapeuta dice que es normal recordar momentos vergonzosos…
Focus: It is normal in general to remember embarrassing moments from adolescence.La terapeuta dice que recuerda momentos vergonzosos…
Focus: The therapist herself remembers embarrassing moments (from her own adolescence).
So in the original sentence, we’re not talking about what the therapist personally remembers, but about what is normal for people in general. That’s why the structure es normal + infinitive (recordar) is used.
Spanish often uses impersonal expressions without a dummy subject like “it”:
- Es normal… = It is normal…
- Es posible… = It is possible…
- Es importante… = It is important…
There is no “it” in Spanish here. The structure is:
- La terapeuta dice que es normal recordar…
= The therapist says (that) it is normal to remember…
The “it” in English is just a grammatical placeholder; Spanish simply doesn’t need anything there.
The phrase es normal + infinitive is a very common pattern:
- Es normal recordar… = It’s normal to remember…
- Es difícil entender… = It’s hard to understand…
- Es fácil olvidar… = It’s easy to forget…
You could say:
- Es normal recordar momentos vergonzosos… (most natural)
- Recordar momentos vergonzosos de la adolescencia es normal. (also correct, just different word order)
But es normal que recordemos… would shift the focus slightly and require the subjunctive:
- Es normal que recordemos momentos vergonzosos de la adolescencia.
This version sounds more like: It’s normal that we remember… The original sentence uses the more general, impersonal es normal + infinitive structure.
After decir que, you only use the subjunctive when you’re giving an order or request. For example:
- La terapeuta dice que vengas mañana.
= The therapist says (tells you) that you should come tomorrow.
(Subjunctive vengas: it’s more like “tells you to come.”)
But when decir is just reporting information, facts, or opinions, you use the indicative:
- La terapeuta dice que es normal recordar…
= The therapist says that it is normal to remember…
Here, she’s stating an opinion/belief (that something is normal), so es is in the indicative, not sea.
Both recordar and acordarse (de) can mean “to remember”, but they differ in structure:
- recordar algo
- Recuerdo esos momentos. = I remember those moments.
- acordarse de algo
- Me acuerdo de esos momentos. = I remember those moments.
In your sentence you could say:
- …es normal acordarse de momentos vergonzosos de la adolescencia.
That is grammatically correct and natural.
Differences to keep in mind:
- recordar is transitive (takes a direct object).
- acordarse (de) is reflexive and must include me/te/se/nos/se and de.
In many contexts they’re interchangeable in meaning; recordar is a bit more neutral and slightly more common in written Spanish.
momento vergonzoso = embarrassing moment
Literally: a moment that causes shame (from vergüenza = shame).vergonzoso/a (adjective) describes something that causes shame or embarrassment:
- una situación vergonzosa = an embarrassing situation
avergonzado/a describes a person who feels ashamed/embarrassed:
- Estoy avergonzado. = I am embarrassed/ashamed.
embarazoso/a also means embarrassing, but can sound more formal or closer to “awkward, delicate” in many contexts.
Important false friend:
- embarazada = pregnant, not “embarrassed”.
So momentos vergonzosos = “embarrassing moments,” not “ashamed moments” or anything with pregnancy.
Both are possible, but they emphasize slightly different ideas:
momentos vergonzosos de la adolescencia
= embarrassing moments from adolescence
(those moments belong to / are associated with that period of life)momentos vergonzosos en la adolescencia
= embarrassing moments during adolescence
(focus on the time when they happened)
In practice, de la adolescencia is very natural here, because we’re talking about the kind of moments that characterize that life stage. It sounds like “embarrassing moments of one’s teenage years.”
The default order in Spanish is:
- noun + adjective
- momentos vergonzosos = embarrassing moments
- recuerdos tristes = sad memories
You can place some adjectives before the noun, but that often changes the nuance or sounds poetic/literary. With vergonzoso, putting it before the noun (vergonzosos momentos) would sound unusual or very marked, like you’re stylistically emphasizing it (and it’s not natural in everyday speech).
So, for regular, neutral speech, momentos vergonzosos is the correct and natural order.
Approximate Latin American pronunciation:
terapeuta:
- te-ra-PEU-ta
- Stress on PEU (like “peh-oo” blended: teh-rah-PEH-oo-tah)
vergonzosos:
- ver-gon-SO-sos
- Stress on SO (ver-gon-SO-sos)
- In most of Latin America, z and s sound the same, like English “s”.
adolescencia:
- a-do-les-CEN-cia
- Stress on CEN: ah-doh-les-SEN-syah
Remember: words ending in a vowel, n, or s are usually stressed on the second-to-last syllable (unless there’s a written accent). All three follow that rule.
Yes, both are correct:
La terapeuta dice que es normal…
= The therapist says / is saying that it is normal…
(present: this is her current opinion or a general statement)La terapeuta dijo que es normal…
= The therapist said that it is normal…
(past: you’re reporting what she said at some point in the past)
Which you choose depends on context:
- Talking about what she normally says or believes → dice.
- Talking about something she specifically said on one occasion → dijo.