Learn Spanish (Latin America): El perro come en el sofá sucio.

El perro come en el sofá sucio.

The dog eats on the dirty sofa.

Breakdown of El perro come en el sofá sucio.

Questions & Answers about El perro come en el sofá sucio.

Wait, why is it el sofá? Doesn't the -a ending make it feminine?

Normally, words ending in -a are feminine, but sofá is an exception. It is a masculine noun. That is why it uses el (the) and why the adjective describing it, sucio (dirty), ends in -o to match it.

If I wanted to say "The sofa is dirty" instead of just "the dirty sofa", would I use ser or estar?

You would use estar and say, El sofá está sucio. Since being dirty is a temporary condition or state rather than an essential, permanent trait, estar is the correct choice.

Why does sucio come after sofá?

In Spanish, descriptive adjectives like sucio (dirty) almost always come after the noun they describe. So instead of saying "dirty sofa", you say "sofa dirty" (sofá sucio).

Could El perro come also mean "The dog is eating"?

Yes! In Spanish, the simple present tense (come) can translate to both "eats" (a regular habit) and "is eating" (happening right now). You don't always need an extra verb to show that an action is happening at this very moment.