El rodillo alisa la arcilla.

The rolling pin smooths the clay.

Breakdown of El rodillo alisa la arcilla.

• la arcilla: the clay
• el rodillo: the rolling pin
• alisar: to smooth

Questions & Answers about El rodillo alisa la arcilla.

Why is it alisa and not alisar?

Alisar is the infinitive, equivalent to to smooth / to flatten.

In the sentence, you need a conjugated verb, so Spanish uses alisa, which is the third-person singular present tense form:

• yo aliso = I smooth
• tú alisas = you smooth
• él / ella / usted alisa = he / she / you smooths

Since el rodillo is he/it grammatically, alisa is the correct form.

What tense is alisa?

It is the present simple.

So El rodillo alisa la arcilla is in the same basic tense as:

• The roller smooths the clay
• The rolling pin smooths the clay

Spanish uses the present tense here just like English does for a general statement or a description of what something does.

Why is it el rodillo?

Because rodillo is a masculine singular noun, so it takes the masculine singular definite article el.

• el rodillo
• un rodillo

A lot of Spanish nouns ending in -o are masculine, and rodillo follows that common pattern.

Why is it la arcilla?