Es necesario entender las normas antes de la reunión.

It is necessary to understand the rules before the meeting.

Breakdown of Es necesario entender las normas antes de la reunión.

• ser: to be
• la: the
• antes de: before
• las: the
• la reunión: the meeting
• la norma: the rule
• entender: to understand
• necesario: necessary

Questions & Answers about Es necesario entender las normas antes de la reunión.

Why is entender left in the infinitive form here instead of being conjugated?

In Spanish, when one verb immediately follows certain expressions like es necesario, hay que, or se debe, the second verb generally remains in the infinitive. The phrase es necesario entender literally translates as it is necessary to understand, so entender is not conjugated—it just follows es necesario in its raw (infinitive) form.

Why do we use antes de instead of just antes?

Antes on its own means before, but to specify a moment in time or an event in Spanish, you usually say antes de + noun or infinitive. In this sentence, you have antes de la reunión. If you dropped de, the phrase wouldn’t be complete in standard Spanish.

Why is it las normas instead of los normas or normas without an article?

1. Normas is a feminine plural noun (it ends in -as, which typically indicates feminine). Therefore, it matches the feminine plural article las.
2. Spanish usually uses articles more frequently than English. Even though English might say rules without a definite article, Spanish typically employs las normas when referring to rules in a general but specific sense—like the set of rules for a meeting.

Could we say es necesario que entendamos las normas?

Yes, that’s perfectly valid. Es necesario que entendamos las normas means it is necessary that we understand the rules. The biggest difference is that this structure uses the subjunctive (entendamos) after es necesario que. In the original version (es necesario entender las normas), you avoid the subjunctive and remain with the infinitive, which is often simpler and equally correct in this context.

Is there a difference between saying entender and comprender in this sentence?

The verbs entender and comprender are very close in meaning. In many contexts, they’re interchangeable, both meaning to understand. However, some speakers might use comprender to imply a deeper, more thorough understanding, while entender can sound a bit more general. In everyday speech, both are common and would fit naturally in this sentence.