Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): La decisión no es fácil, pero quiero escuchar la opinión de mi familia. - The decision is not easy, but I want to hear my family's opinion.

La decisión = the decision, referring to a specific, known decision (the one we’re talking about).
Una decisión = a decision, any decision, not a specific one.
Bare decisión (without article) is not natural here in Spanish; in this kind of sentence, Spanish almost always needs an article:
- La decisión no es fácil – natural
- Una decisión no es fácil – grammatical, but means “a decision is not easy” (more generic, less likely here).

Because the context is “this particular decision I have to make,” la decisión is the normal choice.

Why is it no es fácil and not no está fácil?

This is about ser vs estar.

Ser (here: es) is used for inherent characteristics, descriptions, and general assessments:
- La decisión no es fácil = The decision is (by nature) not easy.
Estar (here: está) is used for temporary states or conditions.
- La situación está difícil = The situation is (currently) difficult.

For easy / difficult applied to tasks, decisions, exams, etc., Spanish almost always uses ser:

El examen es difícil.
Este trabajo es fácil.

La decisión no está fácil sounds odd in standard European Spanish; es is the correct verb here.

Could I say La decisión es no fácil like in English “The decision is not easy”?

No. The normal word order with negation is:

La decisión no es fácil.

You can’t place no directly before fácil. In Spanish, no goes before the verb, not before the adjective:

✅ La decisión no es fácil.
❌ La decisión es no fácil.

So you keep no right in front of es.

Why is it pero and not sino? Aren’t both “but”?

Both pero and sino can be translated as but, but they’re used differently.

Pero is a simple “but,” adding a contrast:
- La decisión no es fácil, pero quiero escuchar la opinión de mi familia.
  → It’s not easy, but I want to hear my family’s opinion.
Sino is “but rather / but instead,” and it corrects a previous negative statement:
- No quiero decidir yo solo, sino escuchar la opinión de mi familia.
  → I don’t want to decide alone, but rather hear my family’s opinion.

In your sentence, we’re not correcting “not easy”; we’re just contrasting: it’s not easy, but I still want to… → so pero is correct.

What’s the difference between escuchar and oír here? Could I say quiero oír la opinión?

Both can translate as to hear, but:

Escuchar = to listen (to), on purpose, with attention.
Oír = to hear, more passive (sound reaches your ears).

In this context, escuchar is better because you’re talking about actively listening to what your family thinks.

Quiero escuchar la opinión de mi familia.
→ I want to listen carefully to their opinion.

Quiero oír la opinión de mi familia is grammatically fine, and many people would say it, but it can sound slightly less intentional. Escuchar is the “good listener” verb.

Why is it escuchar la opinión and not escuchar las opiniones (plural)?

Spanish can use either singular or plural, with a slight nuance:

La opinión de mi familia (singular) treats your family as one unit with a shared opinion.
Las opiniones de mi familia (plural) emphasizes separate opinions of different family members.

In everyday speech, even if each person has a slightly different view, Spanish speakers often use the singular:

Quiero escuchar la opinión de mi familia.
→ I want to hear what my family thinks (as a group).

So the singular la opinión is very natural here.

Why is it de mi familia and not a mi familia after la opinión?

This is because of the noun opinión and the preposition it takes.

La opinión de alguien = someone’s opinion.
- la opinión de mi familia = my family’s opinion.

If you used a mi familia, it would attach to the verb, not the noun:

Quiero escuchar a mi familia.
→ I want to listen to my family (i.e., listen directly to them).

Your sentence is more specific: you want to hear their opinion, not just “listen to them” in general. So:

escuchar la opinión de mi familia is: listen to the opinion (which belongs to my family).

Why is it mi familia (singular) if my family is a group of several people?

In Spanish, familia is a collective noun, grammatically singular:

mi familia = my family (one group).
It takes singular determiners and generally singular verbs:
- Mi familia es grande. (not son grande)

If you want to stress the individuals, you name them specifically:

Quiero escuchar la opinión de mis padres.
Quiero escuchar la opinión de mis hermanos.

But referring to them as a unit, mi familia (singular) is the normal form.

Why isn’t there a personal a before la opinión after escuchar?

The personal a in Spanish is used before direct objects that are people (or person-like):

Quiero escuchar a mi familia.
→ My family = people → use a.

Here, the direct object of escuchar is la opinión, which is a thing, not a person:

Quiero escuchar la opinión de mi familia.
- Direct object: la opinión → no personal a.
- de mi familia = a complement showing whose opinion it is.

So we say:

escuchar a mi familia (people)
escuchar la opinión de mi familia (a thing that belongs to them)

Could I say quisiera escuchar la opinión de mi familia or me gustaría escuchar… instead of quiero escuchar…?

Yes, but the tone changes slightly:

Quiero escuchar…
- Direct, neutral present tense: I want to listen…
- Very common in spoken Spanish.
Quisiera escuchar…
- More polite / soft / tentative: “I would like to listen…”
- Often used in more formal or respectful contexts.
Me gustaría escuchar…
- Also I would like to listen…, polite and a bit softer than quiero.

All three are correct; quiero is straightforward, quisiera / me gustaría sound more polite or less forceful.

Is there any more natural or colloquial way a Spaniard might say this?

Your sentence is correct and natural. In everyday Spain Spanish, people might also say things like:

La decisión no es fácil, pero quiero saber qué opina mi familia.
→ “The decision isn’t easy, but I want to know what my family thinks.”
La decisión no es fácil, pero quiero escuchar lo que diga mi familia.
→ “...but I want to listen to what my family says.”

Escuchar la opinión de mi familia is perfectly fine, just a touch more formal or “textbooky” than saber qué opina mi familia.

How do you pronounce the stressed syllables and why do decisión and opinión have accents?

Stress and accents:

decisión → de-ci-sión
- Stress on the last syllable -sión.
- Ends in -n, so by default the stress should be on the second-to-last syllable; the written accent shows it moves to the last.
opinión → o-pi-nión
- Same pattern as decisión: last syllable stressed, accent marks that shift.
familia → fa-mi-lia
- No accent mark; ends in a vowel, so default stress is the second-to-last syllable → mi.

Accents in decisión and opinión are there to mark that the stress falls on the final syllable instead of the usual second-to-last one.