Breakdown of Mi hermana adulta se siente orgullosa cuando paga ella misma el alquiler.
Questions & Answers about Mi hermana adulta se siente orgullosa cuando paga ella misma el alquiler.
In Spanish, these two expressions mean different things:
- mi hermana adulta = my sister who is an adult (18+; legally/maturationally adult)
- mi hermana mayor = my older sister (older than me), regardless of whether she is an adult
So mayor focuses on age relative to you, while adulta focuses on her being an adult in an absolute sense.
In everyday speech, mi hermana adulta is less common; often people would just say mi hermana, and adulthood is understood from context, or they might say:
- Mi hermana, que ya es adulta, …
- Mi hermana ya adulta, …
But grammatically, mi hermana adulta is fine and clear.
The usual, neutral position for most adjectives in Spanish is after the noun:
- un coche rojo – a red car
- una casa grande – a big house
- mi hermana adulta – my adult sister
Putting an adjective before the noun often adds a special nuance (more subjective, emotional, or stylistic) or changes the meaning:
- un pobre hombre = a poor guy (to be pitied)
- un hombre pobre = a man who is poor (no money)
With adulta, there isn’t a standard meaning change depending on position, but adulta hermana would sound very strange and unnatural. Here you just follow the normal rule: noun first (hermana), then adjective (adulta).
Both are possible, but they’re not identical:
- se siente orgullosa = she feels proud (focus on her internal emotion/perception)
- está orgullosa = she is proud (describes her state; more static or descriptive)
Sentirse + adjective highlights the subjective feeling at that moment. It sounds very natural when talking about emotional reactions:
- Se siente feliz / triste / orgullosa / frustrada.
Estar + adjective also works, but it’s a bit more neutral and stative:
- Está orgullosa de sí misma. – She is proud of herself.
In your sentence, se siente orgullosa emphasizes her emotional reaction each time she pays the rent herself, which matches the idea of personal satisfaction.
Spanish has two related verbs here:
- sentir (non‑reflexive) – to feel something (you normally name what you feel)
- Siente frío. – She feels cold.
- Siento dolor. – I feel pain.
- sentirse (reflexive) – to feel a certain way (followed by an adjective or adverb)
- Se siente feliz. – She feels happy.
- Se siente orgullosa. – She feels proud.
In your sentence, we’re describing how she feels (proud), so we need the reflexive form sentirse → se siente orgullosa, not siente orgullosa (which would be incorrect).
Spanish adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.
- Noun: hermana → feminine, singular
- Therefore the adjective must be: orgullosa (feminine singular)
Other forms would be:
- orgulloso – masculine singular (e.g. Mi hermano está orgulloso.)
- orgullosas – feminine plural (e.g. Mis hermanas están orgullosas.)
- orgullosos – masculine plural / mixed group (e.g. Mis padres están orgullosos.)
So mi hermana adulta se siente orgullosa is correct agreement: feminine subject → feminine adjective.
The choice depends on whether we’re talking about a habitual/repeated action or a specific future/uncertain one.
Cuando paga ella misma el alquiler, se siente orgullosa.
→ This describes what normally/regularly happens.
It’s a habit, so Spanish uses the indicative (paga).Cuando pague ella misma el alquiler, se sentirá orgullosa.
→ This refers to a specific future situation that hasn’t happened yet, and whose occurrence is seen as future/uncertain.
Here Spanish uses the subjunctive (pague).
Your sentence is about what she feels whenever she pays the rent herself, as a repeated pattern. That’s why cuando paga (indicative) is correct.
Yes, the word order here is flexible. Spanish allows several possibilities, each with slightly different emphasis:
All of these are grammatically correct:
- Ella misma paga el alquiler. (most neutral emphasis: She herself pays the rent.)
- Paga ella misma el alquiler. (emphasis on ella misma after the verb)
- Paga el alquiler ella misma. (emphasizes contrast: it’s she herself who pays it)
The version paga ella misma el alquiler highlights ella misma right after the verb, which keeps the focus on who (herself) is doing the paying, rather than, say, someone else (her parents, partner, etc.).
What you cannot do is split the verb and its object pronouns in odd ways, but here there are no object pronouns like lo/la, so the order is quite free.
Yes, mi hermana adulta paga el alquiler already says she pays the rent.
However, ella misma adds an emphasis similar to “herself” or “by herself” in English:
- paga ella misma el alquiler → she herself pays the rent / she pays the rent herself
This suggests contrast, for example:
- Not her parents
- Not a partner
- Not social services, etc.
It underlines that she personally assumes that responsibility, which is why she feels proud.
Both can sometimes be translated as “by herself”, but they’re not identical:
ella misma = she herself (emphasizes the person: it is she, not someone else)
- Ella misma paga el alquiler. – She herself pays the rent.
por sí misma = by herself / on her own (emphasizes doing it without help or support)
- Paga el alquiler por sí misma. – She pays the rent on her own (without help).
In your sentence:
- paga ella misma el alquiler stresses who is doing it.
- paga el alquiler por sí misma stresses that she does it without help.
Often in context both ideas overlap, but the nuance is slightly different.
Spanish normally uses the definite article with many nouns where English would omit it, especially with:
- General concepts
- Regular payments
- Abstract nouns
So you say:
- Paga el alquiler. – She pays the rent.
- Paga la luz y el agua. – She pays the electricity and water.
- Paga la hipoteca. – She pays the mortgage.
Saying paga alquiler (without el) is not standard in Spain and sounds wrong or at least very odd. The article el here doesn’t mean “a specific rent” versus “rent in general” in the English sense; it’s just how Spanish structures these nouns.