Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Mi tía es abogada y dice que leer con atención un contrato evita muchos problemas. - My aunt is a lawyer and says that reading a contract carefully avoids many problems.

Mi tía es abogada y dice que leer con atención un contrato evita muchos problemas.

My aunt is a lawyer and says that reading a contract carefully avoids many problems.

Breakdown of Mi tía es abogada y dice que leer con atención un contrato evita muchos problemas.

Questions & Answers about Mi tía es abogada y dice que leer con atención un contrato evita muchos problemas.

Why is it es abogada and not está abogada?

Because ser is used for someone's profession or identity.

Mi tía es abogada = my aunt is a lawyer
Ser is used for things like:
- identity
- profession
- origin
- characteristics

Estar is used for states or conditions, not professions.

So in this sentence, es abogada is the natural choice.

Why is there no una before abogada?

In Spanish, professions usually do not take an article after ser.

Es abogada
Es médico
Soy profesor

This is different from English, where we normally say She is a lawyer.

You would use an article if you add extra description or are identifying someone in a more specific way, for example:

Es una abogada muy famosa
Es la abogada de mi familia

But in the basic profession pattern, Spanish usually says simply es abogada.

Why is it abogada and not abogado?

Because tía is feminine, and the profession agrees with the person's gender.

mi tío es abogado
mi tía es abogada

Many profession words in Spanish change -o / -a depending on whether the person is male or female. Not all profession nouns work this way, but abogado / abogada does.