Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Mi primer día en la universidad fue emocionante.

Before a masculine singular noun:
- Mi primer día = My first day
- El primer hijo = The first son
When there is no noun after it, you keep primero:
- Es el primero. = He/it is the first.
- Llegué primero. = I arrived first.

So because día is a masculine singular noun, you must say primer día, not primero día.

But día ends in -a. Why is it masculine?

Día is one of the common exceptions to the rule that -a usually marks feminine nouns.

Singular: el día (the day)
Plural: los días (the days)

With possessive adjectives like mi, tu, su, you don’t see the gender in the article, but it is still masculine:

Mi día = My day (masculine)
Mi vida = My life (feminine)

You just have to memorize that día is masculine.

Why is it en la universidad and not a la universidad?

In Spanish:

a usually indicates movement towards a place:
- Voy a la universidad. = I’m going to the university.
en indicates being in/at a place:
- Estoy en la universidad. = I’m at the university.

In Mi primer día en la universidad, you are talking about your day at that place, not going there, so en is correct.

Why do we say la universidad but in English it’s just “at university”, without “the”?

Spanish uses the definite article much more than English with institutions and places:

en la universidad = at university
en el colegio = at school
en la cárcel = in prison
en el hospital = in (the) hospital

English often drops “the” in these “institution” contexts, but Spanish normally keeps the article. Saying en universidad is wrong in standard Spanish. You need en la universidad.

Why is it fue emocionante and not era emocionante?

This is about preterite (fue) vs imperfect (era) of ser.

fue emocionante (preterite) → presents it as a completed event or a specific, one‑off experience.
- Mi primer día en la universidad fue emocionante.
  = That particular first day was exciting.
era emocionante (imperfect) → would sound like describing something ongoing, repeated, or background.
- Mi primer año en la universidad era emocionante.
  = My first year at university used to be / was generally exciting.

For a single, finished, clearly delimited day in the past, fue is the natural choice.

Why do we use ser (fue) and not estar (estuvo) with emocionante?

Use ser for inherent or characteristic qualities of people, things, and events, and estar for more temporary states or conditions.

Fue emocionante.
→ The day itself was an exciting event; “exciting” is seen as a characteristic of that day.
Estuvo emocionante.
→ Possible in some contexts, but more like “it turned out/ended up being exciting”, often used for specific parts of an event (e.g. a match, a show) and can feel a bit more colloquial.

For a neutral, general description of how that day was, fue emocionante (with ser) is the most standard, natural choice.

What’s the difference between emocionante and emocionado?

They are related but not interchangeable:

emocionante = exciting / moving
- Describes the thing or event that causes the emotion.
- La película fue muy emocionante. = The film was very exciting / moving.
- Mi primer día en la universidad fue emocionante. = My first day at university was exciting.
emocionado / emocionada = excited / moved
- Describes the person who feels the emotion.
- Estaba muy emocionado. = I was very excited.
- Todos estábamos emocionados. = We were all excited.

So you don’t say “mi día fue emocionado”; you say “mi día fue emocionante”, but “yo estaba emocionado”.

Could I say Mi primer día fue emocionante en la universidad instead?

That word order is grammatically possible, but it sounds unnatural here. The most natural orders are:

Mi primer día en la universidad fue emocionante.
Mi primer día en la universidad fue muy emocionante.

Spanish usually keeps short, essential complements like en la universidad before the verb when they define what you’re talking about (what “first day” it was). Putting en la universidad at the very end in this sentence feels awkward.

How would the sentence change in the plural: “My first days at university were exciting”?

Everything that can agree in number changes to plural:

Mi → Mis (my)
primer → primeros (first)
día → días (days)
fue → fueron (was → were, because the subject is plural)
emocionante → emocionantes (adjective agrees with días)

Full plural sentence:
Mis primeros días en la universidad fueron emocionantes.

Why is it mi without an accent, but there is also mí with an accent in Spanish?

They are two different words:

mi (no accent) = my
- Mi primer día = My first day
- It’s a possessive adjective, goes before a noun.
mí (with accent) = me (stressed pronoun after prepositions)
- Para mí = for me
- De mí = of me

In the sentence, you need “my”, so you must use mi (no accent).

How are universidad and emocionante pronounced in Spain?

Approximate Spain Spanish pronunciation:

universidad → u-ni-ver-si-DAD
- Stress on the last syllable: uni·versi·dad
- IPA (Spain): [uniβeɾsiˈðað]
- The d at the end is soft, a bit like the th in English “this”, but weaker.
emocionante → e-mo-cio-NAN-te
- Syllables: e-mo-cio-nan-te
- Stress on nan: emo·cio·nan·te
- In most of Spain: ci is pronounced like English “th” in “thin”:
  - IPA: [emoθjoˈnante]
    - cio → [θjo]
- In Latin America, ci would sound like “see” [sjo], but in Spain it’s normally [θjo].

You don’t write an accent mark on universidad or emocionante because they follow the regular Spanish stress rules (no written accent needed).

Can I say “Mi primer día en la uni fue emocionante” in Spain?

Yes. La uni is a very common informal shortening of la universidad in Spain:

Mi primer día en la uni fue emocionante.
→ Perfectly natural in casual speech or informal writing (messages, chats, etc.).

For more formal contexts (essays, official texts), it’s better to use la universidad.

Can I just say “Mi primer día fue emocionante” and leave out “en la universidad”?

Yes, grammatically that’s fine:

Mi primer día fue emocionante. = My first day was exciting.

But then it’s not clear what first day you’re talking about. In real conversation, you would normally drop en la universidad only if the context already makes it obvious:

If you’ve just been talking about university, then
- Mi primer día fue emocionante.
  would be understood as “My first day there was exciting.”

Is there a difference between Mi primer día en la universidad and El primer día en la universidad?

Yes:

Mi primer día en la universidad
- Clearly means my first day (the speaker’s own experience).
El primer día en la universidad
- Literally “the first day at university”.
- It could refer to:
  - The first day in general that exists in some story/timeframe.
  - Someone else’s first day, depending on context.

So if you want to talk about your own experience, you normally say mi primer día.

Why isn’t there an article before mi? Why not “el mi primer día”?

In Spanish, the short possessive adjectives (mi, tu, su, nuestro, vuestro, su) normally replace the article:

mi casa (not la mi casa) = my house
tu coche (not el tu coche) = your car
mi primer día (not el mi primer día) = my first day

Using an article plus mi/tu/su (el mi…, la tu…) is either wrong or extremely marked/archaic in modern standard Spanish. So Mi primer día en la universidad fue emocionante is the correct form.