Breakdown of La matrícula de este año es cara, pero incluye acceso al portal de la biblioteca.
Questions & Answers about La matrícula de este año es cara, pero incluye acceso al portal de la biblioteca.
In this sentence, la matrícula means the enrolment/registration fee for a course, school, or university. It often overlaps with tuition, but the nuance can differ:
- In Spain, matrícula commonly means:
- the act of enrolling, and
- the fee you pay to enroll (registration/tuition fee).
- In many parts of Latin America, people more often say things like colegiatura or inscripción for tuition/fees, though matrícula is still understood.
Another common meaning: matrícula is also license plate (car plate number) in Spain. The meaning is always clear from context.
In your sentence, with de este año and mention of the library portal, it clearly refers to the university/school registration fee.
Spanish uses definite articles (el, la, los, las) more often than English. Here, La matrícula de este año is like saying:
- The tuition/registration fee for this year
We use la because:
- We are talking about a specific, known fee (this year’s).
- In institutional contexts (university, school), referring to la matrícula is standard, almost like a fixed expression.
Dropping the article (Matrícula de este año es cara) would sound wrong in standard Spanish. In general, when talking about things in a specific context (the rent, the salary, the fee, etc.), Spanish normally uses the article:
- La renta es alta. – The rent is high.
- El sueldo es bajo. – The salary is low.
Adjectives in Spanish agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.
- la matrícula → feminine singular
- The adjective must also be feminine singular → cara
So:
- La matrícula es cara. – The tuition/registration fee is expensive.
- El curso es caro. – The course is expensive.
- Las matrículas son caras. – The fees are expensive.
You choose caro / cara / caros / caras depending on the noun:
- masculine singular → caro
- feminine singular → cara
- masculine plural / mixed group → caros
- feminine plural → caras
Both es cara and está cara are possible, but they feel a bit different:
- es cara (with ser) presents it as a more permanent or characteristic fact:
- It is (generally, by nature) expensive.
- está cara (with estar) presents it as temporary or relative to a comparison:
- It is expensive right now / this year, compared to other times or other options.
In your sentence:
- La matrícula de este año es cara suggests: This year’s fee is (objectively) expensive; that’s how it is.
- La matrícula de este año está cara suggests: This year the fee is unusually high (compared to other years, or to what we expected).
In everyday conversation, people do use estar with prices when they compare to normal prices:
- La fruta está muy cara este mes. – Fruit is very expensive this month.
But es cara is perfectly natural in the context of characterizing this year’s fee.
Yes, that’s also correct, but the nuance shifts slightly:
- La matrícula de este año es cara
- Feels like “This year’s fee is expensive”, focusing on this year as a specific version of the fee.
- La matrícula es cara este año
- Feels more like “The fee is expensive this year”, highlighting this year as the time when it is expensive.
Both are natural. The original version with de este año makes the time frame part of the noun phrase (la matrícula de este año = this year’s fee).
In Spanish:
- pero = but / however, to add contrast or limitation.
- sino = but rather / but instead, to correct or replace a previous negative idea.
Your sentence:
- La matrícula de este año es cara, pero incluye acceso al portal de la biblioteca.
- There is a contrast: It is expensive, but (on the positive side) it includes access…
We are not correcting a previous negation, so pero is correct. Some contrasts:
- No es barata, sino cara. – It is not cheap, but rather expensive. (replacing cheap with expensive)
- Es cara, pero merece la pena. – It is expensive, but it is worth it. (just contrasting)
Here, we’re adding a compensating benefit, not replacing or correcting something, so pero is the right conjunction.
Both are grammatically correct:
- incluye acceso al portal…
- incluye el acceso al portal…
The version without the article (incluye acceso) feels more:
- generic / conceptual: includes access in general to that service.
The version with the article (incluye el acceso) treats it as a specific, clearly defined item:
- includes the access (that we have been talking about / that is part of the package).
In many contexts like fees, services, and features, Spanish often omits the article for this kind of “benefit included” wording:
- El precio incluye desayuno. – The price includes breakfast.
- La tarifa incluye servicio de limpieza. – The rate includes cleaning service.
So incluye acceso sounds very natural and typical in this kind of institutional/informational sentence.
al is a contraction of the preposition a and the masculine singular article el:
- a + el = al
So:
- acceso a el portal → acceso al portal
Spanish must contract a + el into al (you cannot keep them separate in standard usage).
Similarly, de + el = del:
- el portal de el campus → el portal del campus
These are the only two obligatory contractions with articles in Spanish: al and del.
With the noun acceso, the standard preposition is a:
- acceso a algo – access to something
Examples:
- acceso a internet – access to the internet
- acceso a la información – access to information
- acceso al edificio – access to the building
acceso para is not used in the sense of “access to X”. It could appear in different structures (for other meanings), but not to mark what you access.
So in your sentence, acceso al portal de la biblioteca is the correct and natural structure: access to the library portal.
portal can mean several things:
- Main entrance / doorway of a building.
- Website portal or online platform, especially in modern institutional contexts.
In acceso al portal de la biblioteca, the context of matrícula (university/school) strongly suggests:
- an online portal – a website or web platform where you can search the catalogue, borrow digital resources, etc.
So here, portal de la biblioteca is best understood as the library’s online portal/website, not the physical door.
After de, Spanish often still uses the definite article if we are talking about a specific, known entity:
- el portal de la biblioteca – the portal of the library (a specific one, probably your institution’s library).
Compare:
- el director de la empresa – the company’s director
- el techo de la casa – the roof of the house
Saying portal de biblioteca without la would sound incomplete or strange here, as if you were describing a type of portal (a “library-type portal”) rather than the library’s portal. For the real-world institution, de la biblioteca is standard.
Yes, it is grammatically correct:
- La matrícula de este año está cara, pero incluye acceso al portal de la biblioteca.
This version with está cara emphasizes more that this year, in particular, the fee is unusually high compared to other years or what you might expect.
Nuance:
- es cara – more neutral/absolute: it is expensive.
- está cara – more relative/temporary: it is (running) expensive right now / this year.
In casual conversation among students comparing years or universities, está cara would sound quite natural if you want to stress the comparison to other times.