Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Mi hermana está soltera, pero sueña con casarse en una boda muy romántica. - My sister is single, but she dreams of getting married in a very romantic wedding.

Estar soltero/a focuses on the current state or situation:
- Mi hermana está soltera. = My sister is (currently) single / not married.
Ser soltero/a can sound more like a fixed personal status or identity, or something you state on a form:
- En el formulario puso que es soltero. = On the form he put that he is single.
- Es soltero convencido. = He’s a convinced bachelor.

In everyday speech, when you’re just talking about someone’s current relationship status, estar soltero/a is more natural, especially in a context like dreaming of getting married, which clearly presents it as a temporary situation.

What exactly does soltera mean? Is it the same as “single”?

Soltera is the feminine form of soltero, and it basically means “unmarried”:

soltero – single (unmarried man)
soltera – single (unmarried woman)
solteros / solteras – plural forms

A couple of nuances:

It primarily refers to not being married, not necessarily to whether you have a boyfriend/girlfriend. Someone can be soltera but have a long-term partner if they’re not legally married.
For other statuses, Spanish uses different adjectives:
- casado/a – married
- divorciado/a – divorced
- viudo/a – widowed

So Mi hermana está soltera literally means “My sister is unmarried,” and in normal conversation that’s usually understood as “She doesn’t have a husband.”

Why do we say sueña con and not sueña de or sueña sobre?

With the verb soñar, Spanish normally uses:

soñar con + noun / infinitive
- Sueña con casarse. = She dreams of getting married.
- Sueña con una boda romántica. = She dreams of a romantic wedding.
soñar que + clause
- Sueña que se casa. = She dreams that she’s getting married.

So the correct pattern for “dream of/about doing something” is soñar con + infinitive.
You should not say sueña de casarse or sueña sobre casarse in standard Spanish; those sound wrong.

In this sentence, sueña con casarse follows that fixed pattern: dreams of getting married.

Why is casarse reflexive? What’s the difference between casar and casarse?

casarse is the reflexive form and means “to get married” (what the people who marry do).
casar (non‑reflexive, transitive) means “to marry someone” in the sense of officiating or arranging the marriage.

Examples:

Juan y Ana se casaron el año pasado.
Juan and Ana got married last year.
→ They are both subject and “recipient” of the action, so it’s reflexive.
El cura casó a Juan y Ana.
The priest married Juan and Ana.
→ The priest performs the ceremony, so the verb is not reflexive.

In our sentence, your sister is the one who will be getting married herself, so Spanish must use casarse:
sueña con casarse = she dreams of getting married.

Why is it sueña con casarse and not sueña con se casa?

Two key rules:

After a preposition like con, Spanish uses the infinitive, not a conjugated form:
- con casarse ✅
- con se casa ❌
In reflexive infinitives, the pronoun attaches to the infinitive:
- casarse, levantarse, ducharse etc.

So:

Correct: Sueña con casarse.
Incorrect: Sueña con se casa.

If you want a full conjugated verb instead of an infinitive, you change the structure:

Sueña que se casa en una boda muy romántica.
She dreams that she is getting married in a very romantic wedding.

Why is it casarse en una boda and not casarse a una boda?

The prepositions have different functions:

a is mainly used for movement toward a place or event:
- Voy a una boda. = I’m going to a wedding.
en is used for location, place, or context where something happens:
- Bailaron en la boda. = They danced at the wedding.
- Se casaron en la playa. = They got married on the beach.

In casarse en una boda muy romántica, en expresses the context or setting: “to get married at / in the context of a very romantic wedding.”

Stylistically, many native speakers might more naturally say:

Sueña con una boda muy romántica.
Sueña con tener una boda muy romántica.

But sueña con casarse en una boda muy romántica is grammatically correct and understandable.

What’s the difference between boda and matrimonio?

In Spain:

boda = the wedding (the ceremony and usually the party).
- Tuvieron una boda preciosa. = They had a beautiful wedding.
matrimonio = marriage (the legal or social state, or the married couple).
- Su matrimonio es muy feliz. = Their marriage is very happy.
- Un matrimonio joven = a young married couple.

So in this sentence, boda is correct because she dreams of the wedding celebration.
Saying un matrimonio muy romántico here would sound strange; it suggests either the married couple or the ongoing marriage, not the event.

Why is it una boda muy romántica and not una muy romántica boda?

General rule in Spanish:

Most descriptive adjectives go after the noun:
- una boda romántica, una casa grande, un coche rápido.

Putting the adjective before the noun is possible, but it:

Sounds more literary or poetic, and
Often adds a special nuance or emphasis.

So:

una boda muy romántica = normal, neutral, everyday Spanish.
una muy romántica boda = possible, but quite literary or affected; not how people normally speak.

For learners, the safe default is: noun + (muy) + adjective → boda muy romántica.

Why do we use muy and not mucho in muy romántica?

muy and mucho both relate to “a lot,” but they’re used differently:

muy
- adjective or adverb:
- muy romántica = very romantic
- muy guapo = very handsome
- muy bien = very well
mucho / mucha / muchos / muchas
- noun:
- mucha gente = a lot of people
- muchos problemas = many problems
mucho (invariable) after a verb:
- Trabaja mucho. = He works a lot.

Since romántica is an adjective, Spanish must use muy:
una boda muy romántica, not una boda mucho romántica.

Why don’t we repeat the subject pronoun ella before sueña?

Spanish is a “pro‑drop” language: subject pronouns are usually omitted because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

In the sentence:

Mi hermana está soltera, pero sueña con casarse…

Once we’ve said Mi hermana, it’s clear that she is the subject of both está and sueña, so you don’t need to add ella.

You could say:

Mi hermana está soltera, pero ella sueña con casarse…

but in this context it sounds a bit redundant. You’d normally only add ella if you need contrast or emphasis:

Mi hermano no piensa en casarse, pero ella sueña con casarse.
My brother doesn’t think about getting married, but she dreams of getting married.

How is sueña formed from soñar, and how is it pronounced?

Grammar:

The infinitive is soñar.
It’s a stem‑changing verb: o → ue in most present‑tense forms.
- yo sueño
- tú sueñas
- él / ella / usted sueña
- nosotros soñamos
- vosotros soñáis
- ellos / ellas / ustedes sueñan

So sueña is the 3rd person singular (he/she/it dreams).

Pronunciation:

ñ is a separate letter; it sounds like the ny in “canyon”.
sueña sounds roughly like “sweh-nyah” in English approximation.
The stress falls on the e (SUE‑ña), and there is no written accent on the vowel because it follows the regular stress rules.

Why is there a comma before pero? Could we leave it out?

In Spanish, pero (“but”) normally introduces a contrast between two clauses, and a comma before pero is standard:

Mi hermana está soltera, pero sueña con casarse…

You will often see this comma in correct written Spanish. Omitting it is less standard and can make the sentence harder to read.

So, in writing, you should generally:

Use a comma before pero when it links two parts of a sentence that could each stand alone:
- Tiene dinero, pero no es feliz.

In speech, of course, there’s no comma; you just pause slightly, as you would with “but” in English.

Could we use aunque instead of pero here? What would change?

Yes, you could say:

Mi hermana está soltera, aunque sueña con casarse en una boda muy romántica.

The difference in nuance:

pero = “but” → simple contrast:
- She is single, but she dreams of getting married.
aunque = “although / even though” → the second idea is somewhat unexpected or surprising given the first:
- She is single, even though she dreams of getting married (slight sense of “despite that situation”).

In this specific sentence, pero sounds more neutral; aunque adds a bit more of a concessive, “in spite of that” feeling.