El collar es azul.

to be

Breakdown of El collar es azul.

• azul: blue
• el collar: the collar (pet)

Questions & Answers about El collar es azul.

Why does the sentence start with el? Why not just collar es azul?

In Spanish, it is very common to use the definite article with nouns when you mean the specific thing.

• el collar = the necklace
• collar by itself would usually sound incomplete in a basic sentence like this

So El collar es azul is the normal way to say The necklace is blue.

Why is it el and not la?

Because collar is a masculine noun in Spanish.

• el collar = the necklace
• la collar is incorrect

In Spanish, every noun has grammatical gender, and collar happens to be masculine, even though the object itself is not biologically male.

How do I know that collar is masculine?

You usually learn a noun’s gender together with the noun itself:

• el collar
• not just collar

That said, there is no perfect rule you can always rely on. Many nouns ending in consonants can be either masculine or feminine, so the safest approach is to memorize the article along with the word.

What does mean here?