El dado está bajo la silla.

In standard English grammar, die is singular and dice is plural.

• el dado = the die
• los dados = the dice

Many English speakers casually use dice for both singular and plural, but Spanish keeps the distinction clearly:

• dado = one
• dados = more than one

Because Spanish nouns have grammatical gender.

• dado is masculine, so it takes el
• silla is feminine, so it takes la

This does not mean the objects are biologically male or female. It is just part of how Spanish grammar works.

A good habit is to learn nouns together with their article:

• el dado
• la silla

Spanish has two verbs for to be: ser and estar.

Here you use estar because the sentence talks about location:

• El dado está bajo la silla. = The die is under the chair.

A very common rule learners use is:

• ser = identity, description, origin, etc.
• estar = location, condition, temporary states

So for where something is, Spanish normally uses estar, not ser.

The accent mark shows which syllable gets the stress:

• es-TÁ

It also helps distinguish this word from other similar-looking words.

In this sentence:

• está = is (from estar)

Without the accent, esta usually means this (feminine), as in:

• esta silla = this chair

So the accent is important for both pronunciation and meaning.

Yes. Both can express under.

• El dado está bajo la silla.
• El dado está debajo de la silla.

Both are correct. In many everyday situations, debajo de may sound a little more explicit or natural to some speakers, while bajo is shorter and completely normal.

One important grammar point:

• bajo la silla → no de
• debajo de la silla → must include de

So you can say:

• bajo la silla
• debajo de la silla

but not:

• debajo la silla

Yes. In this sentence, bajo is a preposition meaning under.

It can also be other parts of speech in other contexts, for example:

• bajo as an adjective: un volumen bajo = a low volume
• bajo as a noun: el bajo = the bass

But in El dado está bajo la silla, it is clearly a preposition showing location.

Usually, no.

Spanish uses articles more often than English does, and in this sentence the natural form is:

• El dado está bajo la silla.

If you remove them, it sounds incomplete or unnatural in normal Spanish:

• Dado está bajo silla ❌

You could change the meaning by using indefinite articles instead:

• Un dado está bajo una silla. = A die is under a chair.

So the articles matter a lot.

This is the most neutral, standard word order:

• subject + verb + location

So:

• El dado = subject
• está = verb
• bajo la silla = location phrase

Spanish does allow other word orders for emphasis, style, or context, for example:

• Bajo la silla está el dado.

That version is possible, but it sounds more marked or dramatic, as if you are emphasizing where it is.

For a basic learner sentence, El dado está bajo la silla is the best default.

There is no deep logical reason tied to the object itself. Nouns in Spanish simply belong to a grammatical gender category.

That said, many feminine nouns end in -a, and silla does, so la silla fits a common pattern.

But you should be careful: endings help, but they are not perfect rules. The safest approach is still to memorize the noun with its article:

• la silla
• el dado

In most of Latin America, ll is pronounced similarly to y in English yes.

So silla is usually pronounced roughly like:

• SEE-ya

A few notes:

• si sounds like see
• the ll usually sounds like y
• the stress is on the first syllable: SI-lla

Depending on the country or region, the ll sound can vary a bit, but the y-like pronunciation is the most common broad Latin American expectation.

Yes, but it changes the meaning.

• el dado = the die → a specific die, one already known or identifiable
• un dado = a die → any die, not previously identified

Compare:

• El dado está bajo la silla. = The die is under the chair.
• Un dado está bajo la silla. = A die is under the chair.

So the article tells you whether the object is specific or not.

You change the article, noun, and verb:

• Los dados están bajo la silla. = The dice are under the chair.

Changes:

• el → los
• dado → dados
• está → están

Notice that bajo la silla does not need to change, because la silla is still singular. If there were multiple chairs, then you would say:

• Los dados están bajo las sillas. = The dice are under the chairs.