Word
Mi hermano está divorciado, pero se lleva bien con su antigua esposa.
Meaning
My brother is divorced, but he gets along well with his former wife.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Mi hermano está divorciado, pero se lleva bien con su antigua esposa.
mi
my
con
with
estar
to be
pero
but
Questions & Answers about Mi hermano está divorciado, pero se lleva bien con su antigua esposa.
Why is it está divorciado and not es divorciado?
In modern Spanish, marital status is normally described with estar, because it is seen as a current state that can change:
- estar casado / divorciado / separado / viudo
- Mi hermano está casado. – My brother is married.
- Mi hermano está divorciado. – My brother is divorced.
Using ser here (es divorciado) would sound unusual in most contexts. It can appear in some varieties or in very specific contexts to classify someone (“he is a divorced man” as a kind of permanent label), but the natural, everyday form for “is divorced” is está divorciado.
So, for you as a learner: with marital-status adjectives, default to estar.
What exactly is divorciado grammatically, and why is it masculine here?