El hueso está roto.

to be

Breakdown of El hueso está roto.

• roto: broken
• el hueso: the bone

Questions & Answers about El hueso está roto.

Why is it está and not es?

Because Spanish usually uses estar for a state or condition, and broken is being treated as a condition here.

• El hueso está roto = The bone is broken
• estar + adjective often describes how something is at the moment

Using es roto would sound wrong in normal Spanish. With roto, you almost always use estar when you mean something is in a broken state.

Why is it roto and not rota?

Because roto has to agree with hueso in gender and number.

• hueso is masculine singular
• so the adjective must also be masculine singular: roto

Compare:

• El hueso está roto = The bone is broken
• La pierna está rota = The leg is broken
• Los huesos están rotos = The bones are broken
• Las piernas están rotas = The legs are broken

Why does the sentence start with el?