Questions & Answers about El piñón está sucio.
Spanish usually uses estar for a temporary state or condition, and ser for identity, essence, or what something is.
So El piñón está sucio uses está because dirty is being treated as a condition the thing is in right now.
- está sucio = it is dirty
- es sucio = it is dirty by nature / it is a dirty thing or a dirty person habitually
With objects, estar sucio is the normal choice when you mean that something needs cleaning.
The accent mark shows which syllable is stressed: es-TÁ.
It also helps distinguish this form from esta, which without an accent usually means this in modern Spanish usage:
- está = is
- esta = this
So the accent is important both for pronunciation and for meaning.
The written accent shows that the stress falls on the last syllable: pi-ÑÓN.
Without the accent, Spanish spelling rules would make you stress it differently. The accent tells you the correct pronunciation.
So:
- piñón → stress on the final syllable