Breakdown of La bolsa está en un cajón profundo que casi nadie abre.
un
a
en
in
estar
to be
abrir
to open
que
that
casi
almost
la bolsa
the bag
el cajón
the drawer
profundo
deep
nadie
no one
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Questions & Answers about La bolsa está en un cajón profundo que casi nadie abre.
Why is está used instead of es in this sentence?
Spanish has two verbs “to be”: ser and estar. You use estar (here está) for locations or temporary states. Since the sentence tells us where the bag is, we use está, not es.
What does cajón mean, and why is it masculine?
Cajón means “drawer” (or “crate,” “box,” depending on context). In Spanish, most nouns ending in -ón are masculine, so we say el cajón and un cajón.
Why is the adjective profundo placed after cajón? Could I say un profundo cajón?
Spanish adjectives usually follow the noun: cajón profundo. Placing profundo before (un profundo cajón) is grammatically correct but sounds more formal or poetic. In everyday speech you’ll almost always hear un cajón profundo (or un cajón muy profundo to add emphasis).
What role does que play in …que casi nadie abre?
Here que is a relative pronoun introducing a defining (restrictive) clause describing un cajón profundo. It means “that” or “which” in English and links the main clause to the clause that follows.
Why isn’t there a direct-object pronoun (like lo) before abre?
In Spanish relative clauses, you do not use a clitic pronoun when the relative pronoun (que) already refers to the direct object. Saying que casi nadie lo abre would be redundant and ungrammatical.
What does casi nadie mean, and can I use it anywhere?
Casi nadie means “almost nobody.” You can use it in most contexts to indicate that very few people do something, e.g., casi nadie viene (“almost nobody comes”). It’s negative in form, so watch out: you don’t add another “no” in the clause.
Why do we say en un cajón and not contract en el or similar?
Spanish contracts de + el → del and a + el → al, but en + el does not contract. Since cajón is introduced by un (not el), there’s no contraction anyway. You always say en un.
Why isn’t there a comma before que in …profundo que casi nadie abre?
No comma is used before que because it’s a defining (restrictive) relative clause: it tells us which deep drawer we’re talking about (the one almost no one opens), so it must be tightly connected without a comma.
What’s the purpose of the accent on cajón?
The accent on cajón marks the stress on the last syllable (ca-JÓN). Without it, the word would follow default stress rules (on the penultimate syllable) and be pronounced CA-jon, which is wrong.