Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Es mejor pedir ayuda a la profesora cuando no comprendes. - It is better to ask the teacher for help when you do not understand.

Es mejor pedir ayuda a la profesora cuando no comprendes.

It is better to ask the teacher for help when you do not understand.

Breakdown of Es mejor pedir ayuda a la profesora cuando no comprendes.

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Questions & Answers about Es mejor pedir ayuda a la profesora cuando no comprendes.

Why does the sentence start with Es mejor? What does that literally mean and why is there no subject like "it"?

Es mejor literally means "is better", but in Spanish this works as an impersonal expression, like English "it is better".

Spanish often doesn’t need an explicit subject pronoun when the subject is general or impersonal. So:

Es mejor… ≈ It is better…
There’s an implicit, general "it" (not referring to any specific thing).

You could say Esto es mejor (this is better) if you were comparing specific options, but in general advice or rules, Spanish prefers the impersonal Es mejor + infinitive.

Why is it pedir and not pides or pide after Es mejor?

After many impersonal expressions that give opinions, recommendations or evaluations, Spanish uses the infinitive:

Es mejor pedir ayuda… = It’s better to ask for help…
Es importante estudiar. = It’s important to study.
Es fácil entender. = It’s easy to understand.

If you said Es mejor pides / pide, it would be ungrammatical here. To use a conjugated verb, you’d need a different structure, for example:

Es mejor que pidas ayuda.
(It’s better that you ask for help. — with subjunctive pidas)

So:

Es mejor + infinitive (pedir) when you keep it general.
Es mejor que + subjunctive (pidas) when you specify who should do it.

Why is it just pedir ayuda and not pedir la ayuda?

In Spanish, when you talk about help in general, you normally don’t use the article:

pedir ayuda = to ask for help (in general)

Using la ayuda tends to make it more specific:

pedir la ayuda de alguien = to ask for someone’s help (a specific person’s help)
pedir la ayuda que necesitas = to ask for the help you need

In your sentence, we’re not talking about any particular, concrete "help"; it’s general advice. That’s why no article is used: pedir ayuda.

What is the role of a la profesora? Why do we need a here?

A la profesora marks who you are asking for help from (the person involved).

There are two key points:

Personal "a"
Spanish uses the preposition a before a specific person who is a direct object:
- Veo a la profesora. = I see the teacher.
- Ayudo a la profesora. = I help the teacher.
In pedir ayuda a la profesora, the direct object is ayuda (what you ask for), and a la profesora is the indirect object (who you ask).
Word order and pronouns
You can also add an indirect object pronoun:
- Es mejor pedirle ayuda a la profesora…
  (le = to her)

Both pedir ayuda a la profesora and pedirle ayuda a la profesora are correct. The a is required to show "to whom" you are asking.

Why is it la profesora and not el profesor? Does that change the meaning?

Spanish nouns have grammatical gender:

el profesor = male teacher
la profesora = female teacher

Using la profesora implies that the teacher is a woman. Using el profesor would imply a man.

If you don’t care about gender in this example, you could also say:

Es mejor pedir ayuda al profesor… (to a male teacher)
Es mejor pedir ayuda al profesor o a la profesora… (inclusive, both)

In many contexts, Spanish (including in Spain) uses the masculine plural los profesores as a generic ("teachers"), but in the singular, el profesor / la profesora generally reflects the actual gender of the person.

Why is there no tú in cuando no comprendes? How do we know it means "you don’t understand"?

Spanish often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

comprendes ends in -es, which is the tú form of comprender (present tense).
- yo comprendo
- tú comprendes
- él / ella comprende

So (tú) no comprendes and no comprendes mean the same thing. The tú is optional here.

You only use tú when you want to emphasize or clarify:

Cuando tú no comprendes, es mejor pedir ayuda…
(emphasis on "you, specifically")

Could we use entiendes instead of comprendes? Is there any difference?

Yes, you could say:

Es mejor pedir ayuda a la profesora cuando no entiendes.

In everyday speech in Spain, entender and comprender are often interchangeable in the sense of "to understand". Entender is probably more common and more informal, while comprender can sound a bit more formal or "deeper" (to really grasp something).

In your sentence, both are perfectly natural.
Nuance (subtle and context‑dependent):

no entiendes — you don’t follow / you’re not getting it.
no comprendes — you don’t truly understand / you’re not comprehending.

But in school contexts, people say both all the time.

Why is it cuando no comprendes (present tense) and not cuando no comprenderás or cuando no comprendas?

Spanish often uses the present tense with cuando to talk about:

general truths
habits
whenever something happens

Your sentence is general advice, not a one-time future situation:

Es mejor pedir ayuda… cuando no comprendes.
= Whenever you don’t understand, it’s better to ask…

Comparisons:

Cuando no comprendes, pides ayuda.
Habitual/general → present.
Cuando no comprendas, pide ayuda.
A specific future situation or as instructions → subjunctive (comprendas) + imperative.

Cuando no comprenderás is basically never used in this kind of structure; Spanish prefers present or, with specific future reference, the subjunctive.

Can we change the word order to start with cuando, like in English "When you don't understand..."?

Yes, and it’s very natural:

Cuando no comprendes, es mejor pedir ayuda a la profesora.

This is just a different order, not a different meaning. Spanish is quite flexible with the placement of cuando‑clauses:

Es mejor pedir ayuda a la profesora cuando no comprendes.
Cuando no comprendes, es mejor pedir ayuda a la profesora.

The second version often feels a bit more like a condition or situation you set up first, just as in English.

How would I say this more formally, speaking to usted instead of tú?

To be formal, you switch to the usted form of the verb:

Es mejor pedir ayuda a la profesora cuando no comprende.

Here, comprende is the usted form (same as él / ella comprende). If you really want to make it explicit, you can add usted:

Es mejor pedir ayuda a la profesora cuando usted no comprende.

In Spain, usted is used in more formal or distant situations (with older people you don’t know, in official contexts, etc.). With a teacher in many schools, students usually use tú, but in some contexts they might use usted.

Can I add a pronoun like le and say Es mejor pedirle ayuda a la profesora? Is that more natural?

Yes, that’s very natural, and actually very common:

Es mejor pedirle ayuda a la profesora cuando no comprendes.

Here:

pedir ayuda = to ask for help (direct object: ayuda)
le = to her (indirect object pronoun, referring to la profesora)
a la profesora = repeats/clarifies who le refers to

Spanish often keeps both:

the indirect object pronoun (le)
and the full noun phrase (a la profesora)

So you can say either:

Es mejor pedir ayuda a la profesora… (perfectly fine), or
Es mejor pedirle ayuda a la profesora… (also very natural, maybe slightly more typical in speech)

Both are correct in Spain.