La urna está vacía.

In Spanish, nouns often need an article where English might not use one. La urna means the ballot box / the urn / the container, referring to a specific one.

Saying just urna by itself would usually sound incomplete in a normal sentence. You would more naturally say:

• La urna está vacía. = The urn/ballot box is empty.
• Una urna está vacía. = An urn/ballot box is empty.

So la is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.

Urna can mean different things depending on context. In Spain, common meanings include:

• ballot box in an election
• urn
• a display or ceremonial container in some contexts

So the exact translation depends on the situation. In many everyday Spanish-learning examples, it is often understood as ballot box or urn.

Spanish has two verbs for to be: ser and estar.

Here, está is used because vacía describes a state or condition: the urn is currently empty.

• La urna está vacía. = it is empty right now / in that state

Using es vacía would sound unusual here, because that would suggest emptiness as an essential characteristic rather than a current condition.

A helpful rule for learners is:

• ser = identity, origin, permanent-type descriptions
• estar = condition, state, location

Está is the third person singular of estar in the present tense.

The subject is la urna, which is grammatically singular, so Spanish uses the singular verb form:

• yo estoy
• tú estás
• él/ella/usted está

So La urna está vacía literally matches The urn is empty.

Because vacía is an adjective agreeing with urna, which is a feminine singular noun.

In Spanish, adjectives often change form to match the noun in:

• gender: masculine/feminine
• number: singular/plural

Examples:

• el vaso está vacío = the glass is empty
• la urna está vacía = the urn is empty
• las urnas están vacías = the urns are empty

So vacía is the feminine singular form.

Yes. Urna is a feminine noun: la urna.

The fact that it begins with u does not change that. The gender of a noun in Spanish is grammatical, not based only on the first letter.

Also, unlike some feminine nouns beginning with a stressed a sound, such as el agua, urna keeps the normal feminine article la:

• la urna
• las urnas

The accent marks show the correct stress.

• está: the stress falls on the last syllable
• vacía: the stress falls on cí

These accent marks are important because they affect pronunciation, and sometimes meaning too.

For example:

• esta = this
• está = is

So the accent in está helps distinguish it from a different word.

A simple pronunciation guide for an English speaker is:

lah OOR-nah es-TAH vah-SEE-ah

A few tips:

• u in urna is like oo in food
• r in urna is a single tapped Spanish r, not a strong English r
• v in vacía is pronounced like a soft Spanish b/v sound, not a strong English v
• cí is stressed: va-CÍ-a

In Spain, the pronunciation is generally clear and crisp, with vowels kept pure and short.

In normal usage, La urna está vacía is the natural choice.

Es vacía is not the usual way to describe something being empty. Spanish normally treats empty/full as conditions, so it uses estar:

• está vacía
• está llena

So for learners, it is best to remember:

• está vacía = correct and natural
• es vacía = usually unnatural in this context

Then both the verb and adjective must change to plural as well:

• La urna está vacía. = The urn is empty.
• Las urnas están vacías. = The urns are empty.

Notice the changes:

• la → las
• está → están
• vacía → vacías

This is a good example of agreement in Spanish.

La urna está vacía is the normal, neutral word order.

Spanish can sometimes change word order for emphasis, but this standard order is the one learners should use first:

subject + verb + adjective

So:

• La urna está vacía.

is the most natural basic form.

You could say ella está vacía, but only if the context already makes it clear that ella refers to la urna. Normally, Spanish prefers the noun itself or simply omits pronouns when they are unnecessary.

So the best sentence here is:

• La urna está vacía.

Spanish often avoids extra subject pronouns unless there is emphasis, contrast, or a need to clarify who or what is being talked about.

Yes, it is perfectly natural Spanish for Spain.

The exact meaning of urna depends on context, but grammatically and stylistically the sentence is completely normal. In Spain, many people would especially understand urna as a ballot box if the context is elections, though urn is also possible in other situations.