Breakdown of La resistencia es importante para correr un maratón.
Questions & Answers about La resistencia es importante para correr un maratón.
In this sentence, la resistencia means endurance / stamina, especially in a sports or physical context.
In Spanish, resistencia is a broad word:
- Physical/sport: endurance, stamina → La resistencia es importante para correr un maratón.
- Opposition: resistance to something → La resistencia al cambio es normal.
- Electrical: resistance in physics.
Here it clearly means physical endurance, not political or physical opposition.
Spanish normally uses a definite article (el, la, los, las) with general abstract nouns much more than English does.
- La resistencia es importante… = Endurance is important… (in general)
- Saying just Resistencia es importante… sounds wrong or very incomplete.
So la resistencia here means endurance (as a concept), not “the specific resistance of something.” It’s the natural way to talk about this quality in general.
Most Spanish nouns ending in -a are feminine, and resistencia follows that pattern, so it takes la.
- la resistencia
- una resistencia
- esta resistencia
There isn’t a special reason beyond vocabulary and patterns; you just learn resistencia as a feminine noun.
Spanish uses ser (es) for essential or general characteristics, and estar (está) for temporary states or conditions.
Here, we’re stating a general fact:
- La resistencia es importante… = Endurance is (generally) important.
Using está importante would sound wrong; importante is almost always used with ser when describing how important something is in general.
Para is used to express purpose or goal, which is exactly the idea here:
- La resistencia es importante para correr un maratón.
= Endurance is important in order to run a marathon.
Por would not work here, because por usually expresses cause, reason, movement through, exchange, etc. In this sentence we want purpose, so it must be para.
After para (to express purpose), Spanish uses the infinitive:
- para correr = in order to run
You cannot say para corriendo here; that is ungrammatical. The -ndo form (corriendo) is a gerund and works more like “running” in “I am running”:
- Estoy corriendo = I am running.
But for purposes/goals, the pattern is para + infinitive, so para correr is correct.
Un maratón means a marathon, in a general, non-specific sense:
- …para correr un maratón. = to run a marathon (any marathon).
You could say el maratón if you refer to a specific one already known in the context:
- La resistencia es importante para correr el maratón de Boston.
In the original sentence we’re talking about marathons in general, so un maratón is more natural.
The accent mark in maratón shows where the stress falls: on the last syllable: ma-ra-TÓN.
- Without the accent, by default, a word ending in -n, -s, or a vowel is stressed on the second-to-last syllable. So maraton (without accent) would be incorrectly stressed MA-ra-ton.
- The written accent corrects this and tells you: stress the last syllable → maratón.
So the accent is there to indicate correct pronunciation and stress.
In Latin American Spanish, maratón is generally masculine:
- un maratón
- el maratón
- correr un maratón
In some parts of Spain you may hear la maratón, treating it as feminine, but for Latin American usage, it’s safest to treat maratón as masculine.
In Latin American Spanish, para correr una maratón would usually sound odd, because maratón is normally masculine there.
- Latin America (standard): correr un maratón
- Some regions of Spain: both correr un maratón and correr una maratón are heard.
Since you specified Latin American Spanish, you should prefer un maratón.
Yes, you can change the word order for emphasis:
- La resistencia es importante para correr un maratón. (neutral, very common)
- Es importante la resistencia para correr un maratón. (emphasizes “important” first)
Both are correct and natural. Spanish allows some flexibility in word order, especially with ser sentences, though the original version is probably the most common.
Yes, that sentence is correct and very natural:
- para correr un maratón = to run a marathon
- para poder correr un maratón = to be able to run a marathon
Adding poder slightly emphasizes the ability or possibility. Meaning-wise, both are close, but para poder correr sounds like “so that you can run / so you are able to run” a marathon.