La vacuna es importante para la salud.

The vaccine is important for health.

Breakdown of La vacuna es importante para la salud.

• ser: to be
• importante: important
• para: for
• la salud: the health
• la vacuna: the vaccine

Questions & Answers about La vacuna es importante para la salud.

Why is it la vacuna and not el vacuna?

In Spanish, every noun has a grammatical gender, masculine or feminine, which usually doesn’t follow logical rules for English speakers.

• Vacuna is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine article la:
  
  • la vacuna = the vaccine
  • una vacuna = a vaccine

If a noun ends in -a, it is often (not always) feminine, and then you must use la/una instead of el/un. In this case, you simply need to memorize that vacuna is feminine.

Does la vacuna refer to one specific vaccine, or vaccines in general?

It can be either, depending on context.

• Specific vaccine:
  If people are already talking about a particular vaccine (e.g. COVID vaccine, flu vaccine), la vacuna can mean that vaccine.

• Generic statement (like in your sentence):
  Spanish often uses the singular with the definite article to talk about things in general.

  • La vacuna es importante para la salud.
    → Vaccination / vaccines are important for health (in general).

So even though it’s singular in Spanish, it can express a general idea that in English we might express with a plural: Vaccines are important for health.

Why is it para la salud and not por la salud?

Para and por both translate as for in English, but they’re used differently.

• para often indicates:
  • purpose, goal, or intended effect
  • destination or recipient

In this sentence, para la salud expresses purpose / benefit:

• The vaccine is important for (the benefit of) health.

Using por la salud would suggest a different idea, like because of health or in exchange for health, which doesn’t fit here. So:

• para la salud = for health, for the benefit of health
• por la salud ≠ correct in this context

Why do we say para la salud and not just para salud?

In Spanish, abstract nouns like salud (health) are often used with the definite article when talking in a general sense:

• la salud = health (in general)

So:

• Es importante para la salud.
  Literally: It is important for the health → understood as for health.

Saying para salud without the article is generally incorrect here. The article la is normally needed when salud is used as a general concept.

Why is it es importante and not está importante?

This is the ser vs. estar difference:

• ser (es) is used for inherent, general, or permanent characteristics.
• estar (está) is used for temporary states or conditions, or location.

In this sentence, importante describes a general, inherent quality of vaccines:

• La vacuna es importante…
  = A general fact about vaccines.

Está importante would sound wrong here. You might use estar with adjectives like enfermo (ill), contento (happy), etc., where you are talking about a current state, not a permanent characteristic.

Could I change the word order, like Es importante la vacuna para la salud?

Yes, that word order is grammatically correct, but there are some nuances:

• La vacuna es importante para la salud.
  Neutral, standard order. Subject (la vacuna) first, then verb, then complement.

• Es importante la vacuna para la salud.
  Still correct. This order can be used to slightly emphasize es importante or to sound a bit more formal or stylistic. It might feel more like “What’s important is the vaccine for health.”

For everyday speech, the original sentence (La vacuna es importante para la salud) is the most natural and typical word order.

Is vacuna the same as “vaccination,” or does it only mean “vaccine”?

Vacuna literally means vaccine, the substance itself.

• Poner una vacuna / ponerse una vacuna = to give / get a vaccine (a shot).

For vaccination (the process), Spanish has:

• la vacunación = vaccination (the act/process)
  
  • La vacunación es importante para la salud.
    = Vaccination is important for health.

In practice, people often use la vacuna in everyday speech to talk about getting vaccinated, not just the liquid itself, so your sentence is perfectly natural.

Why is importante after es, and can I ever say la importante vacuna?

In your sentence, importante is a predicate adjective:

• Structure: subject + ser + adjective
• La vacuna (subject) + es (verb) + importante (adjective).

That is the normal pattern when you say something is big, small, important, etc.

You can also use importante before or after a noun in an attributive way:

• una vacuna importante = an important vaccine
• la vacuna importante = the important vaccine

Putting it before the noun (la importante vacuna) is possible but more literary or emphatic, and it would usually mean “the significant/very important vaccine,” referring to a particular vaccine, not a general statement about vaccines.

How do you pronounce vacuna and salud (in Spain)?

Approximate pronunciation in European Spanish:

• vacuna → bah-KOO-nah

  • Stress on the middle syllable: cu
  • v is pronounced very similar to a soft b in Spanish.

• salud → sah-LOOD

  • Stress on lud (the last syllable).
  • The d at the end is often softened or slightly dropped in casual speech in Spain, sounding a bit like salú.

Phonetic (simplified IPA-style):

• vacuna → /baˈkuna/
• salud → /saˈluð/ (the d is like the “th” in this)

Can I make it plural: Las vacunas son importantes para la salud? Does the meaning change?

Yes, that sentence is perfectly correct:

• Las vacunas son importantes para la salud.
  = Vaccines are important for health.

In terms of meaning, both sentences express almost the same idea:

• La vacuna es importante para la salud.
  Singular generic: The vaccine (as a general concept) is important for health.

• Las vacunas son importantes para la salud.
  Plural: Vaccines are important for health.

Spanish often uses either a generic singular (la vacuna) or a plural (las vacunas) to talk about things in general. The difference is subtle; both sound natural.