Breakdown of La calabaza es dulce y a mi hermana le encanta en sopa.
Questions & Answers about La calabaza es dulce y a mi hermana le encanta en sopa.
In Spanish, when you talk about something in general (a whole category), you usually use the definite article (el, la, los, las).
- La calabaza es dulce = Pumpkin is sweet (in general).
- Las calabazas son dulces = Pumpkins are sweet.
Saying Calabaza es dulce without la sounds wrong as a normal sentence; it would only make sense in very special contexts (like a label or a title, not regular speech).
So in Latin American Spanish, you normally need la here to talk about pumpkin in general.
Both ser and estar can go with adjectives, but they mean different things:
ser + adjective = an inherent, general, or typical quality
- La calabaza es dulce.
→ Pumpkin is (by nature) sweet.
- La calabaza es dulce.
estar + adjective = a temporary state or how something is right now
- Esta calabaza está dulce.
→ This particular pumpkin is sweet (maybe sweeter than usual, or compared with others).
- Esta calabaza está dulce.
In your sentence, the idea is a general fact about pumpkin as a food, so es dulce with ser is the natural choice.
If you said La calabaza está dulce, it would sound more like you’re talking about a specific pumpkin (or pumpkin dish) that turned out sweet this time.
The a marks the person who is experiencing the feeling — the indirect object.
With verbs like gustar and encantar, Spanish structures the sentence differently from English:
- English: My sister loves pumpkin in soup.
- Spanish: A mi hermana le encanta la calabaza en sopa.
Literally: To my sister, the pumpkin is delightful.
So:
- a mi hermana = to my sister (the person who feels the liking)
- le = to her (indirect object pronoun that goes with a mi hermana)
- encanta = delights (the verb; the thing that delights is the subject)
Also, because mi hermana is a person, Spanish uses the so‑called “personal a” with her: a mi hermana.
The verb encantar works like gustar, not like to love in English word order.
English: My sister loves pumpkin in soup.
(subject = my sister, object = pumpkin in soup)Spanish: A mi hermana le encanta la calabaza en sopa.
(subject = la calabaza en sopa, indirect object = a mi hermana)
So:
- You CANNOT say Mi hermana encanta la calabaza to mean My sister loves pumpkin.
That would literally mean My sister enchants the pumpkin, which is nonsense.
Correct patterns:
- A mi hermana le encanta la calabaza.
- A mi hermana le encanta comer calabaza en sopa.
- Le encanta la calabaza en sopa. (to her, pumpkin in soup is delightful)
With encantar, the verb agrees with the thing that is liked:
Le encanta la calabaza.
She loves pumpkin. (one thing → singular encanta)Le encantan las calabazas.
She loves pumpkins. (more than one → plural encantan)
In your sentence, the thing she loves is la calabaza (en sopa) — grammatically singular — so the verb is encanta, singular.
It is redundant from an English point of view, but in Spanish this “doubling” is normal and usually required.
- a mi hermana = full phrase, clarifies who we’re talking about
- le = indirect object pronoun that must appear with encantar
Standard Spanish almost always uses the pronoun:
- A mi hermana le encanta la calabaza. ✅ (natural)
- A mi hermana encanta la calabaza. ❌ (sounds wrong)
- Le encanta la calabaza. ✅ (OK if context makes clear who le is)
This is called clitic doubling: the short pronoun (le) appears even though the full phrase (a mi hermana) is also present.
Yes, there is some flexibility in word order. All of these are grammatically correct:
- A mi hermana le encanta la calabaza en sopa.
- Le encanta la calabaza en sopa a mi hermana.
- La calabaza en sopa le encanta a mi hermana.
Differences:
- Putting a mi hermana at the beginning (A mi hermana le encanta…) highlights your sister.
- Putting la calabaza en sopa first (La calabaza en sopa le encanta…) emphasizes the food.
What does not work is copying English structure:
- Mi hermana encanta la calabaza en sopa. ❌
Also remember that the pronoun le must stay close to the verb:
le encanta, not encanta le.
Spanish simply omits the repeated noun when it is clear from context.
Full version:
- La calabaza es dulce y a mi hermana le encanta la calabaza en sopa.
To avoid repeating la calabaza, Spanish can drop it:
- La calabaza es dulce y a mi hermana le encanta en sopa.
→ Pumpkin is sweet and my sister loves it in soup.
Here, en sopa still describes la calabaza, which is understood from the first part of the sentence. There is no separate word for “it”; Spanish often relies on context like this.
All three are possible, but the nuance changes:
en sopa
= in soup form / as a soup
Very natural in Latin American Spanish when talking about how something is prepared:- Me gusta la calabaza en sopa. → I like pumpkin as soup.
en la sopa
= in the soup (a specific soup the speakers know about)- La calabaza está en la sopa. → The pumpkin is in the soup.
en una sopa
= in a soup (some soup or other, not specified)- Probé la calabaza en una sopa. → I tried pumpkin in a soup.
In your sentence, en sopa means “when it’s made as soup,” which is why the article is often omitted.
Adjectives that end in -e (like dulce) usually have the same form for masculine and feminine in the singular:
- La calabaza es dulce. (feminine singular)
- El mango es dulce. (masculine singular)
For the plural, you add -s:
- Las calabazas son dulces.
- Los mangos son dulces.
So it’s normal that dulce doesn’t change to match feminine; it already matches both genders in that form.
In your sentence, you have mi without an accent:
- a mi hermana = to my sister
The rules:
mi (no accent) = my (a possessive adjective)
- mi hermana, mi casa, mi perro
mí (with accent) = me after a preposition
- para mí, a mí, de mí
- A mí me encanta la calabaza.
So here it’s mi (no accent) because it means my in mi hermana. If you changed the sentence to talk about yourself, you’d use both:
- A mí me encanta la calabaza en sopa.