Breakdown of La vacunación y la desparasitación están confirmadas.
Questions & Answers about La vacunación y la desparasitación están confirmadas.
Why are there two las: La vacunación y la desparasitación?
Spanish often repeats the article when two nouns are joined by y, especially when they are being treated as two separate items.
So La vacunación y la desparasitación sounds very natural and clear:
- the vaccination
- and the deworming / parasite treatment
You may sometimes see a shared article with coordinated nouns, but here repeating la is standard and natural.
What exactly does vacunación mean here?
Vacunación means vaccination or the act/process of vaccinating.
It is different from vacuna, which means vaccine. For example:
- La vacuna = the vaccine
- La vacunación = the vaccination
So this sentence is talking about the procedure/status of vaccination, not the vaccine itself.
What does desparasitación mean?
Desparasitación means deworming or more generally parasite treatment.
It comes from parásito (parasite) and the verb desparasitar (to deworm / to remove parasites from).
In Spain, this word is very common in veterinary or pet-related contexts. Depending on the situation, it may refer to:
- internal parasite treatment
- external parasite treatment
- or parasite treatment in general
Why is it están and not está?
Because the subject is plural.
The subject is La vacunación y la desparasitación — two things joined by y. In Spanish, that makes a plural subject, so the verb must also be plural:
- está = is
- están = are
So:
- La vacunación está confirmada. = The vaccination is confirmed.
- La vacunación y la desparasitación están confirmadas. = The vaccination and deworming are confirmed.
Why is it confirmadas and not confirmado or confirmada?
Confirmadas agrees with the two nouns it refers to.
Both nouns are:
So the adjective/past participle must also be feminine plural:
- confirmado = masculine singular
- confirmada = feminine singular
- confirmados = masculine plural / mixed plural
- confirmadas = feminine plural
Why does Spanish use estar here instead of ser?
Here, estar is used because the sentence describes a state or status: the vaccination and deworming are in the state of being confirmed.
- estar confirmado/a = to be confirmed
- ser confirmado/a would usually sound different and is not the normal choice here
In this sentence, están confirmadas means something like have been confirmed / are confirmed as a current status.
Is confirmadas a verb or an adjective here?
In this sentence, it functions like an adjective.
Although confirmadas comes from the past participle of confirmar (to confirm), in están confirmadas it describes the current state of the two nouns.
So you can think of the structure as:
- estar + past participle used adjectivally
This is very common in Spanish:
Could I also say La vacunación y desparasitación están confirmadas without the second la?
You may hear article omission in some coordinated phrases, but in this sentence La vacunación y la desparasitación is the clearest and most natural standard wording.
Keeping both articles helps show that these are two distinct procedures. In formal or administrative language, repeating the article is especially common.
So for a learner, use both articles.
Why do vacunación and desparasitación have accent marks?
Both words end in -ción, and the stress falls on the last syllable:
- va-cu-na-CIÓN
- des-pa-ra-si-ta-CIÓN
In Spanish spelling, words ending in n, s, or a vowel are normally stressed on the second-to-last syllable unless there is a written accent. The accent mark shows that the stress is on the final syllable instead.
So the accents are required:
- vacunación
- desparasitación
How would this be pronounced in Spain?
A rough pronunciation in Peninsular Spanish would be:
la ba-ku-na-THYON ee la dehs-pa-ra-see-ta-THYON es-TAN kom-feer-MA-das
A few useful notes for Spain:
Could I replace vacunación with vacunas?
Not exactly; the meaning changes.
- Las vacunas = the vaccines
- La vacunación = the vaccination process/status
So:
- Las vacunas están confirmadas would mean the vaccines are confirmed, which is usually not what you want.
- La vacunación está confirmada means the vaccination has been confirmed as done/recorded/verified.
In administrative, medical, or veterinary contexts, vacunación is the better choice when talking about records or status.
In what kind of context would someone say this sentence?
It sounds like a formal or semi-formal statement, especially in:
- veterinary records
- pet adoption documents
- medical or care records
- administrative checklists
It suggests that both procedures have been verified, recorded, or approved.
Because of desparasitación, the most likely context is something related to animals, especially pets.
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