Breakdown of El mercado cercano es muy bonito.
Questions & Answers about El mercado cercano es muy bonito.
In Spanish, every noun has a grammatical gender. Mercado is a masculine noun, so it uses the masculine article el.
- Masculine singular: el mercado
- Feminine singular: la tienda (the shop)
You only use la with feminine nouns, never with mercado.
Adjectives have to agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.
- Mercado is masculine and singular.
- So the adjectives also must be masculine singular: cercano, bonito.
If the noun changed, the adjectives would change too:
- Feminine singular: La plaza cercana es muy bonita.
- Masculine plural: Los mercados cercanos son muy bonitos.
- Feminine plural: Las plazas cercanas son muy bonitas.
The normal, neutral position for most descriptive adjectives in Spanish is after the noun:
- el mercado cercano (the nearby market)
- una casa grande (a big house)
Some adjectives can go before the noun, usually when they express quantity, order, or a more subjective/judgmental quality:
- muchos mercados (many markets)
- primer mercado (first market)
You could say el cercano mercado, but it sounds poetic or very literary, not like everyday modern speech. In normal conversation you should say el mercado cercano.
Cercano is an adjective = nearby / close (describing a noun).
Cerca is an adverb = near / close (describing distance, not modifying a noun directly).
El mercado cercano es muy bonito.
Here you describe mercado, so you use the adjective cercano.El mercado está cerca de mi casa.
Here cerca modifies the verb está, and you add de before what it is near.
So:
- mercado cercano = nearby market
- está cerca de mi casa = is near my house
Both are possible, but they mean different things:
Es muy bonito (with ser)
Describes an inherent or general quality of the market: by nature, it is a very pretty/nice place. This is the neutral, standard description.Está muy bonito (with estar)
Suggests a current state, often temporary or due to some recent change: decorated, renovated, freshly painted, etc.
Example: after they repaint and decorate the market, you might say:
El mercado está muy bonito ahora.
In your sentence, you are just describing what the market is like in general, so es is the best choice.
English needs a subject like it in It is very pretty.
Spanish does not use a dummy subject pronoun like that. The subject is understood from the verb ending and the context.
- El mercado cercano es muy bonito.
The verb es (3rd person singular) already tells you the subject is he / she / it or the market.
You don’t need a separate word for it.
So Spanish simply says is very pretty (es muy bonito) and the subject is implicit: el mercado.
Muy and mucho are different:
muy goes before adjectives and adverbs:
- muy bonito (very pretty)
- muy cerca (very near)
mucho goes with nouns (a lot of) or some verbs (a lot):
- mucho dinero (a lot of money)
- Trabaja mucho. (He/She works a lot.)
So when you intensity an adjective like bonito, you must use muy, not mucho:
es muy bonito, not es mucho bonito.
No. The normal order is:
verb + muy + adjective
- es muy bonito ✅
- es bonito muy ❌
- es bonito mucho ❌
Muy must come before the adjective it modifies.
You can change the adjective, but they are not all used the same way:
bonito
Very common, natural for places and objects in Spain. Roughly: pretty / nice.hermoso / bello
More literary or formal. You can say
El mercado cercano es muy hermoso, but it sounds a bit more elevated or poetic.guapo
Mainly used for people (good‑looking).
For a market, muy guapo would sound joking, ironic, or very informal. It is not the standard way to praise a place.
For an everyday, neutral sentence about a market, muy bonito is the most natural choice.
In Spain:
mercado
Usually means a traditional covered market or open market with stalls (fruit, fish, meat, etc.).
Example: el mercado municipal.supermercado
A supermarket, like Mercadona, Carrefour, Lidl, etc.
So El mercado cercano es muy bonito sounds like you are talking about a traditional-type market, not a big supermarket chain.
You must make the article, noun, and adjectives all plural and keep agreement:
- Los mercados cercanos son muy bonitos.
Changes:
- El → Los (definite article, masculine plural)
- mercado → mercados (plural noun)
- cercano → cercanos (adjective agrees with mercados)
- es → son (3rd person plural of ser)
- bonito → bonitos (adjective agrees with mercados)
You could, but the meaning changes:
El mercado cercano es muy bonito.
You and your listener both know which nearby market you are talking about. It refers to a specific market (the one that is near you).Un mercado cercano es muy bonito.
Feels more generic or out-of-context: “A nearby market is very pretty.” It does not clearly refer to a specific, known market.
In normal conversation about a known place, Spaniards would use el, not un.