Breakdown of La médica explica la situación con calma.
Questions & Answers about La médica explica la situación con calma.
La médica is the feminine form of the noun for a medical doctor.
- el médico = a male doctor, or traditionally a generic doctor.
- la médica = a female doctor.
In contemporary Spanish, especially in Spain, using the feminine form (médica, profesora, abogada, etc.) for women is very common and often preferred, instead of only using the masculine as a generic.
Both are used, but they are not exactly the same:
- médico / médica: profession doctor/physician (the job itself).
- doctor / doctora: literally “doctor” in the academic sense, but often used as a form of address for medical doctors too.
In Spain you will hear both:
- La médica me atendió muy bien. – talking about her job.
- La doctora me atendió muy bien. – also very natural, especially as a polite form.
Using la médica is absolutely correct and increasingly common as a gender-specific professional title.
In Spanish, when you refer to a specific person with their profession as the subject of the sentence, you normally include the definite article:
- La médica explica la situación. ✅
- Médica explica la situación. ❌ (incorrect in normal speech)
You can drop the article mainly in things like headlines, notes, or labels:
- Médica explica los riesgos de la operación – a newspaper headline.
But in regular sentences, you need the article la.
Explica is the simple present tense of explicar (3rd person singular).
In Spanish, the simple present is used much more broadly than in English. It can express:
- actions happening right now:
- La médica explica la situación. = “The doctor is explaining the situation.”
- habitual actions:
- Cada día la médica explica la situación a los pacientes.
Está explicando is also possible:
- La médica está explicando la situación.
This emphasizes more clearly that the action is in progress right now, but in many contexts Spanish speakers are happy with the simple present explica where English prefers a continuous form.
Explicar is a regular -ar verb. The present tense forms are:
- yo explico
- tú explicas
- él / ella / usted explica
- nosotros / nosotras explicamos
- vosotros / vosotras explicáis
- ellos / ellas / ustedes explican
In the sentence, la médica = ella, so we use ella explica → explica.
Spanish accent rules:
- Words ending in a vowel, -n, or -s are stressed on the second‑to‑last syllable by default.
- explica ends in a vowel (a), so stress naturally falls on pli: ex‑pli‑ca.
- Because the stress follows the regular rule, there is no written accent.
You only add a written accent when the stress breaks these default rules (for example explicó, with stress on the last syllable).
Spanish uses definite articles much more than English:
- la situación can mean the situation or sometimes just the situation in a general, context‑obvious sense.
In English, you might say:
- “The doctor explains the situation.”
- Or even just “The doctor explains the situation” where the is required.
In Spanish, you almost always keep the article with a specific noun:
- la situación, el problema, la razón, etc.
Leaving it out (explica situación) would sound wrong in normal sentences.
Nouns ending in ‑ción are almost always feminine:
- la situación, la información, la conversación, la nación, la explicación.
So they take la and feminine adjectives if needed. This ‑ción = feminine rule is very reliable and useful to remember.
Literally yes: con calma = with calm. Functionally, it describes how the action is done:
- “She explains the situation calmly, in a calm way, without rushing or getting upset.”
It focuses more on her attitude and manner (patient, unhurried, not nervous) than just on speed.
Calmamente exists but is very rare and sounds a bit unnatural. Spanish usually prefers:
- con calma
- tranquilamente (tranquilly, calmly)
- con tranquilidad
So:
- La médica explica la situación con calma. ✅
- La médica explica la situación tranquilamente. ✅
- La médica explica la situación calmamente. ❓ (understandable, but unusual)
Yes, Spanish word order is somewhat flexible for adverbial phrases like con calma. Some possibilities:
- La médica explica la situación con calma. (most neutral)
- La médica, con calma, explica la situación. (slight emphasis on with calm)
- Con calma, la médica explica la situación. (emphasizes the calm manner)
All are grammatically correct; the first is the most typical everyday word order.
Spanish normally drops subject pronouns when they are clear from the verb ending:
- explica → we already know it’s él/ella/usted from the form.
- La médica is the subject, so ella is not needed.
You could say:
- Ella explica la situación con calma. – “She explains the situation calmly.”
- Ella, la médica, explica la situación… – grammatically possible, but sounds like you’re making a contrast or clarification in a specific context.
In the neutral sentence, La médica explica la situación con calma is the natural choice.