Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): La profesora elogió al alumno cuya pronunciación es excelente. - The teacher praised the student whose pronunciation is excellent.

Spanish marks a direct object that’s a specific person with the personal a. Here, alumno (the student) is the person being praised, so we need a + alumno. Because alumno takes the definite article el, a + el contracts into al (one word).

What tense and person is elogió, and how does it translate?

Elogió is the third-person singular of the pretérito perfecto simple (preterite) of elogiar. It means “(she) praised” or “(he) praised.” In this sentence, “The teacher praised…”

What does cuyo mean, and why is it used instead of que or su?

Cuyo/a/os/as is a relative pronoun meaning whose. It links two clauses and shows possession. Using cuyo is more concise than saying que + su, e.g.
• Instead of …al alumno que tiene su pronunciación excelente, you use …alumno cuya pronunciación es excelente.
It avoids repeating a separate verb for possession.

Why is it cuya and not cuyo here?

Cuyo must agree in gender and number with the noun it refers to. Pronunciación is feminine singular, so we use cuya (feminine singular).

Why isn’t there an article like la before cuya pronunciación?

With cuyo/a/os/as, you never add another article. The relative pronoun itself carries the definite idea (“the”), so you say cuya pronunciación (not la cuya pronunciación).

Why does pronunciación carry an accent on the ó?

Spanish words ending in a vowel, n or s are normally stressed on the penultimate syllable. Pronunciación is stressed on the last syllable (an aguda), so it requires a written accent on the ó.

Why is the verb es in the present tense when the main verb is past?

The main clause’s action takes place in the past (elogió). The relative clause describes a characteristic that remains true at the moment of speaking. His pronunciation is excellent now, so we keep es in the present.

How else could I express “whose pronunciation is excellent” without using cuyo?

You have a few options:

Use que plus a possession verb:
“La profesora elogió al alumno que tiene una pronunciación excelente.”
Split into two sentences:
“La profesora elogió al alumno. Su pronunciación es excelente.”
Use del cual (more formal/literary):
“La profesora elogió al alumno, la pronunciación del cual es excelente.”

Can I place the clause cuya pronunciación es excelente somewhere else in the sentence?

No. A cuyo-clause must immediately follow the noun it modifies (alumno). You cannot separate them or put cuya at the very beginning, because it needs its antecedent right before it.

Why is the adjective excelente placed after pronunciación?

In Spanish, descriptive adjectives commonly follow the noun. Although excelente can also precede—and sometimes adds emphasis—here it describes a specific quality of pronunciación, so the natural order is pronunciación excelente.