Breakdown of El pescado fresco del mercado es muy sabroso y sano.
Questions & Answers about El pescado fresco del mercado es muy sabroso y sano.
Spanish distinguishes between:
- pez: the living animal in the water (a fish that is alive).
- pescado: the fish as food (caught, dead, and typically for eating).
In El pescado fresco del mercado es muy sabroso y sano, we are clearly talking about fish as food, so pescado is the correct word.
If you were talking about fish swimming in the sea, you would use pez instead, for example: Hay muchos peces en el mar (There are many fish in the sea).
In Spanish, the definite article (el, la, los, las) is often used when talking about things in a general, generic way, much more than in English.
- El pescado fresco del mercado es muy sabroso y sano.
→ General statement about fresh fish from the market.
If you remove the article (Pescado fresco del mercado es muy sabroso y sano), it sounds wrong to a native speaker. It feels incomplete, as if something is missing at the start.
So even though English can drop the, Spanish normally keeps El when making a general statement like this.
Del is the mandatory contraction of de + el before a masculine singular noun.
- de + el mercado → del mercado
You must contract de el into del when el is the masculine singular article (as in el mercado).
The only time you do not contract is when él is the pronoun he or him with an accent:
- Hablo de él. (I talk about him.)
Here de- él does not become del.
In Spanish, the normal position for descriptive adjectives (like fresco, sabroso, sano) is after the noun:
- pescado fresco = fresh fish
Putting fresco before the noun is either:
- Unusual or poetic, or
- Changes the meaning, because fresco can also mean cheeky / impudent when applied to people.
So fresco pescado would not naturally be understood as fresh fish; it sounds wrong, and a native might even think you meant something like cheeky fish in a joking or poetic way.
For everyday Spanish, keep it as pescado fresco.
In this sentence, fresco clearly describes pescado, not mercado:
- pescado fresco = fresh fish
- del mercado = from the market
Spanish normally puts an adjective right after the noun it modifies. If you wanted to say fresh market (which is not a normal phrase anyway), you would need to say mercado fresco, and you would place it next to mercado.
So the structure is:
- El [pescado fresco] [del mercado]
subject: the fresh fish (from the market)
Both ser and estar can appear with adjectives, but they mean different things:
- ser + adjective: describes an inherent, usual or characteristic quality.
- estar + adjective: describes a temporary state or condition.
In this sentence:
- El pescado fresco del mercado es muy sabroso y sano.
→ The idea is that this kind of fish (fresh from the market) is generally tasty and healthy. It’s presented as a characteristic.
If you say:
- El pescado está muy sabroso.
→ You are talking about how this specific fish tastes right now (for example, the one on your plate).
So es is used here because it’s a general statement, not a description of the fish at this exact moment.
In Spanish, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in gender and number:
- pescado is masculine singular.
- So the adjectives that describe it must also be masculine singular: sabroso, sano.
If the noun changed, the adjectives would change too:
Los pescados frescos del mercado son muy sabrosos y sanos.
(pescados → masculine plural, so sabrosos, sanos are also masculine plural.)La carne fresca del mercado es muy sabrosa y sana.
(carne → feminine singular, so sabrosa, sana.)
Both can describe tasty food, but usage differs a bit:
sabroso: literally flavorful, tasty.
Slightly more formal or descriptive; often used in writing, menus, recipes, etc.rico (when talking about food): tasty, delicious, yummy.
In everyday spoken Spanish in Spain, people use rico a lot.
In Spain, instead of Es muy sabroso, you will very often hear:
- Está muy rico. (It’s really tasty.)
- Está buenísimo. (It’s really delicious.)
But sabroso is perfectly correct and clear.
Both can mean healthy, but with nuances:
sano:
- Can describe people: Estoy muy sano. (I am very healthy.)
- Can describe food or habits: Una dieta sana, comida sana.
saludable:
- A bit more formal or technical.
- Often used for habits, lifestyles, environments: vida saludable, estilo de vida saludable, hábitos saludables.
In everyday speech in Spain, comida sana (healthy food) is very common and sounds natural.
Muy and mucho are used differently:
muy goes before adjectives and adverbs:
- muy sabroso (very tasty)
- muy sano (very healthy)
- muy rápido (very fast)
mucho / mucha / muchos / muchas usually goes with nouns:
- mucho pescado (a lot of fish)
- mucha agua (a lot of water)
- muchos mercados (many markets)
So:
- muy sabroso, muy sano → correct
- mucho sabroso, mucho sano → incorrect
You can say sabroso y sano or sano y sabroso; both are grammatically correct.
There is no strict rule here. The order is mostly a matter of:
- rhythm and what sounds more natural
- what you want to emphasize first
In practice, many speakers will put the more appealing or attention‑grabbing quality first, and sabroso (tasty) often comes before sano (healthy), simply because taste tends to be more immediately attractive than health:
- sabroso y sano
sounds very natural in Spanish.
In Spain, mercado usually suggests a market where fresh food is sold, often with individual stalls:
- butchers, fishmongers, fruit and vegetable stalls, etc.
- often indoors, in a dedicated market building in the city
A supermarket is normally called supermercado.
So:
- mercado → traditional market / fresh food market
- supermercado → supermarket (self‑service, big chains, etc.)
In the sentence, del mercado suggests from the (fresh) market, which fits nicely with pescado fresco.