El documental empieza en cuarenta minutos.

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Breakdown of El documental empieza en cuarenta minutos.

• empezar: to start
• el minuto: the minute
• el documental: the documentary

Questions & Answers about El documental empieza en cuarenta minutos.

Why is it empieza and not empiezo or empiezan?

Because the subject is el documental, which is third person singular: it starts.

• yo empiezo = I start
• tú empiezas = you start
• él/ella empieza = he/she/it starts
• ellos empiezan = they start

So El documental empieza means The documentary starts.

Why is el used before documental?

Documental is a masculine singular noun in Spanish, so it takes el.

• el documental
• el libro
• el programa

In this sentence, el means the.

Is documental always masculine?

Yes, when documental is used as the noun meaning documentary, it is normally masculine: el documental.

Even though many words ending in -al can be adjectives, here it is functioning as a noun.

Example:

• Vi el documental ayer. = I watched the documentary yesterday.