Breakdown of Soy el profesor, pero él es el estudiante.
ser
to be
el estudiante
the student
él
he
el profesor
the teacher
pero
but
Questions & Answers about Soy el profesor, pero él es el estudiante.
Why does the word el have an accent mark in one part of the sentence but not the other?
The word el without an accent means "the". The word él with an accent means "he". The accent mark is just a spelling trick to help you tell apart two words that sound exactly the same!
The lesson says masculine nouns usually end in -o, but profesor ends in a consonant. Is it still masculine?
Yes! While most masculine nouns end in -o, words that end in certain consonants (like -r or -l) are often masculine too. You can confirm it is masculine here because it uses the masculine article el. To talk about a female professor, you would add an -a to make it la profesora.
estudiante ends in an -e. Does that make it masculine or feminine?
Words ending in -e do not follow the regular -o and -a rule. The noun estudiante is exactly the same for both men and women! We only know this specific student is male because the sentence uses él (he) and the masculine article el. For a female student, you would say la estudiante.
Why does the sentence use the pronoun él for "he is", but just says Soy instead of Yo soy for "I am"?
In Spanish, you can almost always drop subject pronouns like yo (I) because the verb soy already means "I am". However, speakers often include pronouns when they want to make a strong contrast. By using él after the word pero (but), the speaker is heavily emphasizing the difference between their own role and his role.
Learn Soy el profesor, pero él es el estudiante and more in Spanish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free