La costurera dijo que el vestido estará listo esta tarde.

Spanish normally uses definite articles much more often than English.

• la costurera = the seamstress / the dressmaker
• el vestido = the dress

In a sentence like this, Spanish usually includes the article because it is talking about a specific person and a specific dress already known in the context.

English might sometimes say Seamstress said the dress... only in headlines or very informal shorthand, but standard Spanish would normally need La costurera dijo...

Costurera means seamstress, dressmaker, or someone who sews clothes professionally.

A few useful notes:

• It comes from costura = sewing
• costurera is feminine
• The masculine form would be costurero, though in real life other words such as sastre may be more common depending on the job

In this sentence, costurera suggests a woman working on clothing, especially making or altering garments.

Dijo is the preterite of decir and means said.

• yo dije
• tú dijiste
• él/ella/usted dijo

The preterite is used because this reports a completed speech event in the past: she said it at a particular moment.

So:

• La costurera dijo... = the action of saying is finished

If you used decía, that would sound more like was saying / used to say, which gives a different meaning.

After verbs like say, think, know, and believe, Spanish usually uses que to introduce the following clause.

So:

• dijo que... = said that...

In English, that is often optional:

• She said the dress will be ready
• She said that the dress will be ready

In Spanish, que is normally required here. You would not usually say La costurera dijo el vestido estará listo...

Estará is the simple future of estar: will be.

So the sentence means the dress will be ready later, specifically this afternoon.

• está listo = is ready
• estará listo = will be ready

Because the dress is not ready yet at the moment of speaking, the future tense fits naturally.

This is a very common question because English often shifts tenses in reported speech.

In English, you often get:

• She said the dress would be ready this afternoon

But Spanish does not always shift the tense in the same way. If the event is still in the future from the point being talked about, Spanish can keep the future:

• La costurera dijo que el vestido estará listo esta tarde.

This sounds like:

• She said that the dress will be ready this afternoon.

If you say estaría, that is often interpreted differently, more like a conditional or future-in-the-past idea:

• dijo que estaría listo = she said it would be ready

That can also be possible in some contexts, but estará is perfectly natural when the speaker is presenting the dress’s readiness as a real future event.

The accent mark shows where the stress goes:

• es-ta-RÁ

Without the accent, the word would not follow normal spelling/stress rules for that verb form.

Also, many future forms in Spanish have written accents:

• estaré
• estarás
• estará
• estarán

The accent is part of the correct spelling, not optional.

Listo agrees with el vestido, which is a masculine singular noun.

Agreement in Spanish means adjectives change to match the noun in:

• gender
• number

So:

• el vestido listo = masculine singular
• la falda lista = feminine singular
• los vestidos listos = masculine plural
• las faldas listas = feminine plural

Since vestido is masculine singular, the adjective must be listo.

No. Here listo means ready.

Listo can mean different things depending on context:

• estar listo = to be ready
• ser listo = often to be clever / smart in Spain

In this sentence:

• el vestido estará listo = the dress will be ready

So this is the ready meaning, not the clever one.

Esta tarde means this afternoon.

Here esta is a demonstrative adjective meaning this, and it goes directly before the noun:

• esta tarde = this afternoon
• esta noche = tonight / this evening
• esta mañana = this morning

You do not add an article here:

• not la esta tarde

And saying only tarde would not mean the same thing. Esta tarde specifies which afternoon: this one.

Yes, but it is usually unnecessary.

Spanish often omits subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person:

• dijo already tells you it is he/she/you (formal) said

So La costurera dijo... is completely normal. Adding ella would usually be for emphasis, contrast, or clarity if needed.

For example:

• La costurera dijo que el vestido estará listo.
• Ella dijo que el vestido estará listo, pero yo no le creo.

In the second sentence, ella adds emphasis or contrast.

A Spain pronunciation would be approximately:

La cos-tu-RE-ra DI-jo ke el bes-TI-do es-ta-RÁ LIS-to ES-ta TAR-de

A few important pronunciation points for Spain:

• c before o in costurera is a normal k sound
• v in vestido sounds very similar to b
• j in dijo is a throaty sound, like a strong English h, but rougher
• r in costurera is tapped
• stress falls on:
  • cos-tu-RE-ra
  • DI-jo
  • ves-TI-do
  • es-ta-RÁ
  • LIS-to
  • TAR-de

Also, in much of Spain, z and soft c are pronounced with a th sound, but that does not affect these particular words because there is no z and no c before e or i here.

Yes. Both are natural, but they feel slightly different.

• estará listo = simple future, a bit more neutral or formal
• va a estar listo = near future, often a little more conversational

So these are both fine:

• La costurera dijo que el vestido estará listo esta tarde.
• La costurera dijo que el vestido va a estar listo esta tarde.

In everyday speech, ir a + infinitive is very common. The original sentence with estará is still completely normal.