Breakdown of Mi amiga dice que el mejor momento de la boda fue el primer beso de la pareja.
Questions & Answers about Mi amiga dice que el mejor momento de la boda fue el primer beso de la pareja.
Amiga is the feminine form of amigo. Spanish forces you to mark grammatical gender:
- mi amiga = my (female) friend
- mi amigo = my (male) friend
Unlike English, you can’t keep it neutral with just friend. You choose amiga or amigo based on the friend’s gender (or how the speaker chooses to refer to them).
You’ll sometimes see inclusive forms like amigx, amig@, amigue in informal or activist contexts, but they’re not standard and wouldn’t normally appear in a basic example sentence.
In Spanish, subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, ella, etc.) are usually dropped because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- Mi amiga dice… already tells you “my friend (she) says…”.
- Ella dice… would be used if you really wanted to emphasize she (as opposed to someone else).
Mi amiga ella dice… is normally redundant and sounds unnatural in standard Spanish, unless it’s very marked, almost “My friend, she says…” for special emphasis in spoken language.
Yes, que here is the conjunction that, introducing what she says:
- Mi amiga dice que… = My friend says that…
Unlike English, in standard Spanish you cannot drop this que:
- ❌ Mi amiga dice el mejor momento de la boda fue… (incorrect)
- ✅ Mi amiga dice que el mejor momento de la boda fue… (correct)
So: English can say My friend says (that) the best moment…; Spanish must say dice que.
The tenses reflect two different time frames:
- dice (present): she now says / she is saying / she says (in general)
- fue (preterite past): the moment at the wedding happened and is finished
So the structure is:
She says (now) that the best moment of the wedding was (then) the couple’s first kiss.
You could also put the “saying” in the past:
- Mi amiga dijo que el mejor momento… fue…
= My friend said that the best moment… was…
Both fue and era are past forms of ser, but they’re used differently:
- fue (preterite): a completed, one-off event or a final, definite evaluation
→ “The best moment (finished, decided) was X.” - era (imperfect): background description, ongoing situation, or less finished sense
→ could feel more like “was (used to be / generally was)…”
In this sentence, we’re identifying a specific, clearly defined highlight of the wedding, so fue is the natural choice:
- ✅ …el mejor momento de la boda fue el primer beso… (sounds decisive)
- …era… would sound odd here, as if we’re just describing how things were in general, not naming a clear best moment.
Spanish uses definite articles (el, la, los, las) more than English:
- el mejor momento = the best moment
- la boda = the wedding (a specific one we’re talking about)
- el primer beso = the first kiss
- la pareja = the couple
In English, you say the best moment of the wedding was the couple’s first kiss, so actually all of those are also definite. But often in other contexts English might drop an article where Spanish keeps it, e.g.:
- Spanish: la vida
- English: life
In this particular sentence, every noun phrase is specific, so definite articles are required.
Adjectives like mejor (better/best) usually go before the noun:
- el mejor momento = the best moment
El momento mejor is possible but sounds unusual and often more poetic or contrastive (e.g. “el momento mejor, no el peor”). In everyday speech, the natural order is:
- el mejor momento, la mejor parte, el peor día, etc.
Both are possible, but they mean slightly different things:
- el mejor momento de la boda
= the best moment of the wedding (part of that event; belongs to that event) - el mejor momento en la boda
= the best moment at the wedding (focus is more on location/time “during the wedding”)
Native speakers overwhelmingly prefer de la boda here because we’re talking about a moment that belongs to that event (the wedding’s best moment), not just a random moment that happened at that place.
Spanish has “shortened” forms (apócopes) of some adjectives when they come before a masculine singular noun:
- primero → primer (before masculine singular noun)
- el primer beso
- but el primero (standing alone: “the first one”)
Same pattern with others:
- bueno → buen → un buen amigo / un amigo bueno (different nuance)
- tercero → tercer → el tercer capítulo
So in this sentence:
- ✅ el primer beso (correct)
- ❌ el primero beso (incorrect)
Spanish doesn’t use an apostrophe-s possessive like English. Instead, it typically uses de:
- el coche de Juan = Juan’s car
- la casa de mis padres = my parents’ house
- el primer beso de la pareja = the couple’s first kiss
You cannot say anything like la pareja’s primer beso in Spanish. Possession and relationships are normally expressed with de + noun.
Yes, la pareja refers to a pair (usually a romantic couple), but grammatically it’s singular feminine:
- la pareja (singular) → takes singular verbs/adjectives:
- La pareja es muy feliz. (The couple is very happy.)
- las parejas (plural) → when talking about several couples
In this sentence:
- el primer beso de la pareja = the first kiss of the couple (two people, but one unit grammatically)
Yes, that’s a perfectly natural alternative:
- Según mi amiga, el mejor momento de la boda fue…
= According to my friend, the best moment of the wedding was…
Difference in nuance:
- Mi amiga dice que… focuses on the act of saying (she says / she told me).
- Según mi amiga… focuses on this being her opinion or point of view.
Meaning-wise, in this context they’re almost equivalent; it’s mainly a stylistic choice.
The verb agrees with the subject of the clause, not with all the nouns in the sentence.
Here the subject of fue is:
- el mejor momento de la boda (the best moment of the wedding)
That whole phrase is singular (it’s one “moment”), so the verb must also be singular:
- El mejor momento de la boda fue… (singular → singular)
The wedding (la boda) and the couple (la pareja) are just inside prepositional phrases (de la boda, de la pareja) and do not control the verb agreement.