Breakdown of La mermelada casera con mantequilla está buenísima.
Questions & Answers about La mermelada casera con mantequilla está buenísima.
In Spanish, every noun has a grammatical gender, masculine or feminine, which is mostly arbitrary and must be memorized.
- Mermelada is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine article la.
- Masculine nouns use el (e.g. el pan, el queso), feminine ones use la (e.g. la mermelada, la mantequilla, la casa).
There is no logical reason based on meaning; you simply learn la mermelada as a fixed pair.
The subject is la mermelada casera con mantequilla.
Spanish usually drops subject pronouns when the subject is clear from context or from the verb form.
- Está buenísima. → The form está (3rd person singular) already tells you the subject is he/she/it or usted.
- Because we have la mermelada… before the verb, that noun phrase is the subject, so there is no need for ella.
- Está (with accent) is a form of the verb estar (3rd person singular, present indicative). It means is (in a temporary/subjective state).
- Esta (no accent) is a demonstrative adjective/pronoun meaning this (feminine), as in esta mermelada = this jam.
In La mermelada casera con mantequilla está buenísima, you need the verb está, so it takes an accent.
In Spanish:
- Ser is used for more permanent or defining characteristics.
- Estar is often used for temporary states, conditions, or subjective evaluations at this moment.
Saying La mermelada… está buenísima expresses a current, tasted-right-now judgement: this jam (as I’m eating it now) is really good.
If you say La mermelada casera con mantequilla es buenísima, it sounds more like a general, always-true fact or a strong statement of its inherent quality. Both can be heard, but estar with food and taste is very common in Spain to emphasize current enjoyment.
Adjectives in Spanish agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.
- Noun: la mermelada → feminine singular
- Adjective: buenísima → feminine singular (ending in -a)
If the noun were masculine, you’d say:
- El pan casero está buenísimo. – The homemade bread is really good.
If it were plural feminine:
- Las mermeladas caseras están buenísimas. – The homemade jams are really good.
The ending -ísima forms an absolute superlative. It intensifies the adjective, similar to:
- muy buena – very good
- buenísima – extremely good / really good / super good
It doesn’t mean “the best of all” (that would be the relative superlative la mejor), but a very high degree of the quality.
Other examples:
- rico → riquísimo (very tasty)
- caro → carísimo (very expensive)
- grande → grandísimo (very big)
Yes, you can, and it’s correct. But the nuance changes:
- es muy buena
- Uses ser and muy
- Sounds slightly more neutral or general: It is very good (as a quality).
- está buenísima
- Uses estar and the superlative -ísima
- Sounds more enthusiastic, more subjective, more about your current experience: Wow, this is amazingly good!
In everyday Spanish (Spain), está buenísima is very natural when reacting to how something tastes.
In Spanish, most descriptive adjectives normally come after the noun:
- mermelada casera – homemade jam
- pan casero – homemade bread
- coche nuevo – a new car
Putting casera after mermelada is the regular, neutral order: noun + adjective.
Some adjectives can appear before the noun with a slightly different nuance (more subjective, poetic, or emphasizing the quality), but casera is most naturally placed after mermelada here. Casera mermelada would sound very unusual.
Yes, casera agrees with mermelada:
- mermelada → feminine singular
- casera → feminine singular
If the noun changed, casera would also change:
- Masculine singular: pan casero (homemade bread)
- Feminine plural: mermeladas caseras (homemade jams)
- Masculine plural: platos caseros (homemade dishes)
No. Casera can indeed mean landlady / female landlord in other contexts:
- La casera vino a cobrar el alquiler. – The landlady came to collect the rent.
But here, placed after a food noun (mermelada casera), it clearly means homemade or made at home. The meaning is determined by context and position in the phrase.
In Spain, mermelada is the usual word for jam (fruit spread). The exact distinction between jam and jelly isn’t as strong as in English.
Other related words:
- confitura – also a type of jam/preserve, but less common in everyday speech.
- jalea – exists, but is much less common in Spain than in some Latin American countries; many Spaniards use mermelada for most spreads.
So for most everyday situations in Spain, mermelada is the word you want.
Both are possible, but they sound slightly different:
- con mantequilla – with butter (in general)
- More generic, like saying: Jam with butter as a combination.
- con la mantequilla – with the butter
- Refers to specific butter already known in the context (the butter we have on the table, for example).
In a general statement of what you like, con mantequilla (no article) is more natural.
Está is:
- Verb: estar
- Tense: present indicative
- Person: 3rd person singular (he, she, it, or usted)
So, La mermelada… está buenísima = The jam is really good (right now).
Yes, you can say:
- La mermelada casera con mantequilla me encanta.
→ I love homemade jam with butter.
Differences:
- está buenísima
- Focuses on the quality of the jam: it tastes amazing.
- It’s a description of the food.
- me encanta
- Focuses on your personal feeling: I love it.
- Uses the verb encantar, similar to gustar, which literally means to delight.
You could even combine both:
La mermelada casera con mantequilla está buenísima; me encanta.
- La casera mermelada…
- This sounds wrong/very unnatural in Spanish. We almost never put casera before a food noun like this.
- La mermelada con mantequilla casera
- Here, casera would naturally modify mantequilla, not mermelada. It would mean jam with homemade butter, which is a different meaning.
To say homemade jam with butter, the natural and clear order is:
- La mermelada casera con mantequilla…
Buenísima is common and natural in spoken Spanish and is somewhat colloquial/enthusiastic, but not rude or slangy.
More neutral/formal ways:
- está muy buena – is very good
- es excelente – is excellent
- es deliciosa – is delicious
- está riquísima – is delicious (also quite colloquial/enthusiastic)
In everyday speech in Spain, está buenísima / riquísima is very common when talking about food that tastes great.
Buenísima is pronounced roughly: bweh-NEE-see-mah.
The accent on -ní- tells you where the stress falls:
- bue-NÍ-si-ma (stress on the ní syllable)
Without the accent (buenisima), many learners might wrongly stress it as bue-ni-SI-ma. The written accent ensures the correct stress.