Breakdown of La profesora corrige los exámenes y explica cada equivocación en clase.
Questions & Answers about La profesora corrige los exámenes y explica cada equivocación en clase.
In Spanish, nouns that refer to people usually have a grammatical gender that matches the person:
- el profesor = the (male) teacher
- la profesora = the (female) teacher
The article (el / la) and the ending of the noun often show gender. Here, la + profesora tells you the teacher is female.
In Spain, profesor/a is normally used for secondary school and university; maestro/a is more for primary school teachers.
In Spanish you normally don’t use a subject pronoun if the subject is clear from context or from the verb ending.
- La profesora corrige… is complete: la profesora is the subject.
- It would be wrong to add ella in front of the noun (Ella la profesora… sounds ungrammatical).
You could say Ella corrige los exámenes…, but then you wouldn’t repeat la profesora. You choose either a noun (la profesora) or a pronoun (ella), not both together in this position.
Both corrige (from corregir) and explica (from explicar) are in the present indicative, 3rd person singular.
In English, we’d normally translate this Spanish present as:
- “The teacher corrects the exams and explains each mistake in class.”
or - “The teacher corrects the exams and explains every mistake in class.”
The Spanish presente can express:
- a general habit: something that regularly happens (the most likely reading here)
- something happening now (in the right context)
Spanish doesn’t need a separate continuous form like “is correcting” to express current or habitual actions.
Corregir is an irregular verb. In the present tense it has a stem change e → i:
- corregir → stem correg- → corrig- in stressed forms
- él / ella / usted corrige
Also, because of spelling rules, in the yo form the g changes to j:
- yo corrijo
- tú corriges
- él / ella / usted corrige
- nosotros corregimos
- vosotros (Spain) corregís
- ellos / ellas / ustedes corrigen
So corrige is the correct 3rd person singular; correge would break both the stem-change and spelling rules.
Spanish doesn’t always mark possession when it’s obvious from context.
- La profesora corrige los exámenes already implies they’re the exams of her students.
- Adding sus (sus exámenes) is possible, but often unnecessary and a bit heavier in style here.
So los exámenes is the natural default: “the exams” (understood as the exams she has to correct).
Singular: el examen (stress on the second syllable: e-XA-men).
Plural: los exámenes (stress on XA again: e-XA-me-nes).
When examen becomes plural, an extra syllable appears (-es), so the written accent is added to keep the stress on the same syllable:
- Without an accent, examenes would be pronounced e-xa-ME-nes.
- With an accent, exámenes is pronounced e-XA-me-nes, matching the singular stress pattern.
The accent mark tells you where the stress falls after the word changes.
In Spanish, y changes to e only before words that start with the “i” sound (spelled i- or hi- without a consonant in between):
- padres e hijos (“parents and children”)
- agua e hielo (“water and ice”)
But explica starts with e, not with an i sound. So the normal y is used:
- corrige los exámenes y explica…
You only say e when the next word starts with the vowel sound /i/.
In Spanish, cada (“each / every”) is always followed by a singular noun, even when the meaning is plural:
- cada día = each day / every day
- cada alumno = each student
- cada equivocación = each mistake, every mistake
The plural meaning comes from cada, not from the noun ending. So you don’t say cada equivocaciones; that would be incorrect.
All three can be translated as “mistake” or “error,” but there are small nuances:
- equivocación: a mistake in the sense of “something you got wrong / a wrong choice or answer.”
- error: often a bit more formal; can be used for logical, scientific, or serious mistakes.
- falta: in school contexts, often used for language errors (spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes), or “faults” (like a foul in sports, or a missed class: una falta de asistencia).
Here, equivocación suggests the teacher is walking through what the students got wrong in their exams, in a general, everyday sense.
En clase is a set expression meaning roughly:
- “in class / during the lesson / during class time.”
Without the article, it refers to the activity or situation of being in class.
En la clase tends to point to a specific classroom or a specific lesson:
Lo explicó en clase.
He/She explained it in class (during class time, as part of teaching).Lo explicó en la clase de matemáticas.
He/She explained it in the math class (a specific class/subject).
In this sentence, en clase is natural because we’re talking about what happens as part of the lesson, in front of the students.
Yes. Spanish word order is relatively flexible. Both are grammatical:
- La profesora corrige los exámenes y explica cada equivocación en clase.
- La profesora explica cada equivocación y corrige los exámenes en clase.
However, the order can slightly affect the emphasis or the implied sequence. The original suggests:
- She corrects the exams (maybe beforehand).
- Then she explains each mistake in class.
If you reverse the order, it can sound more like both actions are just two things she does, without suggesting a clear sequence.
Yes, in principle:
La profesora corrige los exámenes.
→ La profesora los corrige. (“She corrects them.”)La profesora explica cada equivocación.
→ La profesora la explica. (“She explains it,” referring to cada equivocación in context)
→ More naturally, if you’ve already mentioned las equivocaciones:
La profesora las explica. (“She explains them.”)
A combined version, if context is clear:
- La profesora los corrige y luego los explica en clase.
(“She corrects them and then explains them in class.”)
But you normally wouldn’t mix full nouns and pronouns in a confusing way in the same sentence. Choose what’s clearest for the listener.
Yes, the original sentence only clearly states that the explaining happens in class:
- La profesora corrige los exámenes y explica cada equivocación en clase.
Most natural reading: she corrects the exams (possibly at home or in her office) and then explains each mistake in class.
If you say:
- La profesora corrige los exámenes en clase.
that sounds like she is actually correcting (marking) them during class time, in front of the students, which is a different situation.
So the position of en clase matters for what it is understood to modify.