Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): La profesora respeta la identidad de todas las personas en clase. - The teacher respects the identity of everyone in class.

Spanish normally uses an article in front of professions when you identify a specific person: la profesora, el médico, el profesor de historia.

In English, “Teacher respects…” (without the) can work in some contexts (e.g. as a role label), but in Spanish you almost always need the article if you’re talking about a particular teacher.

So la profesora here means “the teacher (female)” and the article is grammatically required in this kind of sentence.

What is the difference between la profesora and una profesora?

La profesora = the teacher (a specific teacher that speaker and listener can identify; maybe the regular teacher of the class).
Una profesora = a teacher (not a specific one, just some teacher, or introducing her for the first time).

In this sentence, we’re clearly talking about the specific teacher of that class, so la profesora is used.

Why is it profesora and not profesor?

Spanish usually marks grammatical gender on many profession nouns:

el profesor – male teacher
la profesora – female teacher

Because the subject is a woman, the feminine form profesora is used.

Note that this is grammatical gender; in many contexts Spanish speakers may choose different forms (e.g. la profesor or gender‑neutral options) for inclusive language, but in standard traditional grammar it’s profesor / profesora.

Why is the verb respeta and not respecta (like “respect” in English)?

The Spanish verb is respetar (without c), not respectar. It’s a classic false friend with the English noun/verb “respect”.

Respetar is a regular ‑ar verb:

yo respeto
tú respetas
él / ella / usted respeta
nosotros respetamos
vosotros respetáis
ellos / ellas / ustedes respetan

In the sentence, la profesora = she, so we use the 3rd person singular: (ella) respeta.

What tense is respeta, and could it mean both “respects” and “is respecting”?

Respeta is present indicative, 3rd person singular.

Spanish present tense often covers what English expresses in two ways:

La profesora respeta…
→ “The teacher respects…” (general fact, habit)
→ “The teacher is respecting…” (right now), depending on context

If you really want to emphasize “right now”, Spanish can use estar + gerundio:

La profesora está respetando la identidad…
But for general, habitual, or timeless statements, simple respeta is the normal choice.

Why do we say la identidad and not su identidad or just identidad without any article?

la identidad with the definite article can often correspond to English “their identity” in a general statement, especially when the possessor is obvious from context. Spanish frequently uses the article instead of a possessive where English requires “his/her/their”:

Les lava las manos a los niños.
→ “She washes the children’s hands.” (literally “the hands to the children”)

Similarly, respeta la identidad de todas las personas is understood as “respects the identity of all the people” (i.e. their identity).

Without the article – respeta identidad – would sound incorrect or very odd. In Spanish, a singular count noun almost always needs an article (or another determiner) unless it’s in a special structure.
Su identidad is also possible:
- …respeta su identidad.
  That usually focuses more explicitly on each person’s own identity, but it can also be a bit ambiguous (could “su” refer to someone else previously mentioned).

Why do we say de todas las personas instead of a todas las personas after respeta?

It depends what is being respected:

In this sentence, what is respected is la identidad (direct object).
De todas las personas explains whose identity:
- respeta [la identidad] [de todas las personas]
  → respects [the identity] [of all the people]
If you say:
- La profesora respeta a todas las personas en clase.
  Here todas las personas is the direct object (persons themselves are respected).

So:

respeta la identidad de todas las personas
= respects the identity of everyone.
respeta a todas las personas
= respects everyone as people (more general).

Both are grammatically correct; they focus slightly differently on “identity” vs “people”.

Why is it todas las personas and not todos las personas?

Adjectives and determiners must agree in gender and number with the noun they modify:

personas is grammatically feminine plural (even if it refers to men, women, non‑binary, etc.).
Therefore, todas must be feminine plural too: todas las personas.

If the noun were masculine plural, e.g. alumnos, you’d say todos los alumnos.

Could we say todos en clase instead of todas las personas en clase?

Yes, you could say:

La profesora respeta la identidad de todos en clase.

Here todos is a pronoun meaning “everyone / everybody”. It’s a bit more informal and less explicit than todas las personas, which literally names “all the people”.

Subtle differences:

todas las personas en clase: more explicit, inclusive wording; stresses people as individuals.
todos en clase: more colloquial; understood as “everyone in class” (could be read as mainly the students, depending on context).

Why is it personas and not gente or alumnos / estudiantes?

Possible options, with nuance:

personas = “people” (neutral, inclusive; can include students, teacher, assistants, etc.).
gente = “people” in a more collective, mass sense; it’s singular grammatically:
- la gente en clase = the people in class (as a group) You’d normally say:
  La profesora respeta la identidad de la gente en clase.
  This is understandable, but personas sounds clearer when stressing individual identities.
alumnos / estudiantes = “students”:
- La profesora respeta la identidad de todos los alumnos en clase.
  This focuses specifically on the students, not on any other people who might be present.

Using personas highlights that every person in the classroom environment is included, not just the students.

Why do we say en clase and not en la clase?

Both are possible, but there is a nuance:

en clase (without article) often means “during (the) class”, “when class is in session”, focusing on the activity or situation:
- No hables en clase. = Don’t talk in class.
en la clase (with article) can sound more like “in the classroom / in that specific class”, focusing a bit more on the physical place or on a particular class group:
- Hay 20 alumnos en la clase. = There are 20 students in the class.

In your sentence, en clase sounds very natural Spanish to mean “in class” in the general, educational context.

Can we change the word order, like En clase, la profesora respeta la identidad de todas las personas?

Yes. Spanish word order is fairly flexible, especially with adverbial phrases like en clase. All of these are grammatically fine:

La profesora respeta la identidad de todas las personas en clase.
En clase, la profesora respeta la identidad de todas las personas.
La profesora, en clase, respeta la identidad de todas las personas. (a bit more emphatic / written style)

The default, most neutral order is usually subject – verb – rest of the sentence, as in the original. Moving en clase to the beginning can emphasize the context “in class” a bit more.

Could we replace personas with alumnos or estudiantes, and what would change in meaning?

Yes, for example:

La profesora respeta la identidad de todos los alumnos en clase.
La profesora respeta la identidad de todos los estudiantes en clase.

These are correct and common. The meaning shifts slightly:

todas las personas en clase = everyone present in that class context (students, maybe teaching assistants, possibly even the teacher herself as part of the community, depending on reading).
todos los alumnos / estudiantes = specifically the students.

So the original is a bit more widely inclusive; the alternatives focus on students.