El cielo es azul y bonito.

The sky is blue and beautiful.

Breakdown of El cielo es azul y bonito.

• ser: to be
• y: and
• bonito: beautiful
• azul: blue
• el cielo: the sky

Questions & Answers about El cielo es azul y bonito.

Why do we use "es" instead of "está" when talking about the sky?

We use es to describe a permanent or unchanging quality. In Spanish, está usually suggests a temporary or changing state. Since the sky’s color generally doesn’t change in a permanent sense (aside from weather changes, but that’s considered a different context), es fits best.

Why does "azul" stay the same for both masculine and feminine nouns?

In Spanish, some adjectives have forms that don’t change based on gender, and azul is one of them. Whether the noun is masculine or feminine, the adjective azul remains the same. Only in the plural does it change to azules.

Why is "bonito" masculine here instead of "bonita"?

Because cielo is a masculine noun (it uses the article el). Adjectives that end in -o generally need to match the masculine gender, so bonito is used. If the noun were feminine, we would use bonita.

How come there is "y" between the adjectives and not another conjunction?

Y is the Spanish equivalent of and in English and is used to join words or clauses. The only time we typically change y to e is before words starting with the sound i (like hielo or iglesia). Here, since bonito starts with a b, we stick with y.

Why are the adjectives placed after the noun, compared to English word order?

In Spanish, it’s common for adjectives to come after the noun to describe its characteristics. While you can shift some adjectives before the noun for specific connotations or stylistic reasons, the standard rule is noun + adjective, like cielo azul and cielo bonito.