Learn Spanish (Latin America): Ellos viven en ciudades grandes.

Ellos viven en ciudades grandes.

They live in big cities.

Breakdown of Ellos viven en ciudades grandes.

vivir

to live / to be constantly (doing something)

Questions & Answers about Ellos viven en ciudades grandes.

Why is the word for cities ciudades instead of just adding an s to make ciudads?

The singular word for city is ciudad, which ends in a consonant (the letter d). In Spanish, when a noun ends in a consonant, you make it plural by adding -es instead of just -s.

Why does the describing word grandes have an -s at the end?

In Spanish, adjectives (describing words) must match whether the noun they describe is singular or plural. Because ciudades is plural, the word for big, grande, must also be plural. Since grande ends in a vowel, you simply add an -s to make it grandes.

Why is the order ciudades grandes instead of grandes ciudades?

In English, we put the adjective before the noun, like big cities. In Spanish, it is usually the opposite: the noun comes first, followed by the adjective that describes it.

How do we know to use viven here?

The base verb for to live is vivir. Because the subject of the sentence is Ellos (they), we drop the -ir ending and add -en to match the they form.