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La ciudad tiene hospitales grandes.

La ciudad tiene hospitales grandes.
The city has big hospitals.
From Lesson 7:Making nouns plural (-s, -es)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of La ciudad tiene hospitales grandes.

tener
to have
la ciudad
the city
el hospital
the hospital
grande
big

Questions & Answers about La ciudad tiene hospitales grandes.

Why is the plural of hospital spelled hospitales and not hospitals?
In Spanish, when a noun ends in a consonant (like the l in hospital), you make it plural by adding -es. If you just added an -s, it would be very hard to pronounce!
Why does grandes just get an -s instead of -es?
The word for "big" is grande, which ends in a vowel (e). When a word ends in a vowel, you just add -s to make it plural. Notice that the adjective (grandes) must also be plural to match the plural noun (hospitales).
Why are the words flipped to say hospitales grandes instead of grandes hospitales?
In English, we put the describing word before the noun ("big hospitals"). In Spanish, descriptive adjectives almost always come after the noun they describe.
I thought feminine words usually ended in -a. Why is it La ciudad?
While most feminine words do end in -a, there are a few other endings that act as clues. A very helpful rule is that almost all Spanish nouns ending in -dad (like ciudad or universidad) are feminine, which is why it uses la.
Do I pronounce the "h" in hospitales?
No, the letter h is always silent in Spanish! You pronounce this word as if it starts right with the o.

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