Questions & Answers about El queso es sabroso.
In Spanish, when you talk about something in general (a whole category like cheese, meat, wine, etc.), you usually use the definite article (el, la, los, las).
- El queso es sabroso.
= Cheese is tasty (in general, as a type of food).
If you say just Queso es sabroso, it sounds wrong/unnatural to a native speaker.
Other examples:
- El vino es caro. = Wine is expensive.
- La carne es saludable. = Meat is healthy.
So Spanish tends to keep the article where English drops the in general statements.
Queso is a masculine noun, so it takes the masculine article el.
Most nouns ending in -o are masculine:
- el queso (cheese)
- el libro (book)
- el perro (dog)
Most nouns ending in -a are feminine:
- la casa (house)
- la mesa (table)
- la silla (chair)
There are exceptions (like el día, la mano), but queso follows the common pattern: -o → masculine → el.
Both ser and estar translate as to be, but they’re used differently.
Ser (es) is used for:
- Essential or defining characteristics
- Things that are generally or permanently true
- Categories, identity, origin, time, etc.
Estar (está) is used for:
- Temporary states or conditions
- Location
- How something is at a particular moment
El queso es sabroso.
= Cheese is tasty (as a general characteristic of cheese).
El queso está sabroso.
= The cheese (this particular cheese, now) tastes good / is tasty (this time, this batch).
So es here expresses a general, characteristic quality, not a temporary state.
Es is the third person singular form of ser in the present tense.
Present tense of ser:
- yo soy
- tú eres
- él / ella / usted es
- nosotros/as somos
- vosotros/as sois
- ellos / ellas / ustedes son
In El queso es sabroso, the subject is el queso, which is third person singular, so the verb must be es.
In Spanish, the normal word order is: [article] + [noun] + [adjective]
So:
- el queso sabroso
- la casa grande
- un libro interesante
Adjectives usually come after the noun, unlike in English.
You can put some adjectives before the noun (buen, mal, gran, etc.), and you can sometimes move others before for stylistic or poetic reasons, but sabroso queso would sound poetic or marked, not the neutral everyday way to say it.
The neutral, standard form is el queso sabroso or simply el queso es sabroso.
Sabroso is an adjective, and in Spanish adjectives must agree with the noun in gender and number.
Because queso is:
- masculine
- singular
the adjective must also be:
- masculine
- singular → sabroso
Forms of sabroso:
- sabroso – masculine singular (el queso sabroso)
- sabrosa – feminine singular (la sopa sabrosa)
- sabrosos – masculine plural (los quesos sabrosos)
- sabrosas – feminine plural (las salsas sabrosas)
So sabroso matches el queso in gender and number.
You need to make both the noun and the verb and the adjective plural:
- El queso es sabroso. → singular
- Los quesos son sabrosos. → plural
Changes:
- el → los
- queso → quesos
- es → son
- sabroso → sabrosos
Everything agrees in number (plural).
Yes, you can, and it’s correct, but the meaning shifts:
El queso es sabroso.
General characteristic: Cheese is (by nature) tasty.El queso está sabroso.
Temporary condition: This cheese (today, this piece, this dish) tastes good now.
You’ll hear está sabroso or está muy rico at the table when people are tasting a specific dish and praising how it turned out this time.
All of these can describe food positively, but there are nuances:
- sabroso – tasty, flavorful; often focusing on strong or pleasant flavor.
- rico – very common in Spain for food: Está muy rico ≈ It tastes really good. Friendly and conversational.
- delicioso – delicious; a bit stronger and sometimes more formal or enthusiastic.
- bueno – good; can refer to taste, quality, or even being healthy, depending on context.
Examples:
- El queso es sabroso. = Cheese is tasty.
- Este queso está muy rico. = This cheese tastes really good.
- La comida está deliciosa. = The food is delicious.
- El pescado es bueno para la salud. = Fish is good for your health.
In everyday speech in Spain, for food you’ll hear rico and está muy bueno a lot.
Queso:
- que sounds like keh (short e, like get)
- so sounds like so with an s (not z)
Roughly: KEH-so
Sabroso:
- sa → sa (like sa in salsa)
- bro → bro (like bro in broccoli, with a rolled/flapped r)
- so → so with an s
Roughly: sa-BRO-so
The stress is on bro: saBROso.
You can say El sabroso queso, but it does not mean the same thing in practice:
El queso es sabroso.
A complete sentence: The cheese is tasty. (statement)El sabroso queso
Just a noun phrase: the tasty cheese.
It needs a verb to be a full sentence:- El sabroso queso es caro. = The tasty cheese is expensive.
- Me encanta el sabroso queso. = I love the tasty cheese.
Also, putting sabroso before queso gives it a slightly more literary, descriptive feel. The neutral, most common position is after the noun: el queso sabroso (or better: just el queso es sabroso).
No. To express personal likes in Spanish, you normally use gustar, not ser sabroso.
- Me gusta el queso.
= I like cheese.
El queso es sabroso doesn’t clearly say that you like it; it states that cheese is tasty (as a general fact or opinion). You can combine both:
- Me gusta el queso porque es sabroso.
= I like cheese because it’s tasty.