Breakdown of La madre de la esposa es amable.
Questions & Answers about La madre de la esposa es amable.
Why doesn't Spanish use an apostrophe "s" like in English (la esposa's madre)?
Spanish doesn't have an apostrophe "s" ('s) to show possession. Instead, you always use the formula [item] + de + [owner]. So, "the wife's mother" literally becomes "the mother of the wife": la madre de la esposa. Do I always have to put a word like la or el after de?
You need it here because you are saying "the mother of the wife" (de la esposa). If the owner were a specific person's name, like Maria, you wouldn't use la. You would just say la madre de Maria (Maria's mother). Since la madre is feminine, shouldn't amable end in an "a"?
Adjectives that end in -e in Spanish are gender-neutral, meaning they stay exactly the same for both masculine and feminine nouns. If we were talking about a father (el padre), he would also be amable. Why do we use es instead of está for "is" in this sentence?
We use es (from the verb ser) because being kind (amable) is a personality trait of the mother. In Spanish, you use ser to describe permanent or inherent characteristics, while estar is used for temporary states, locations, or current moods. Learn La madre de la esposa es amable and more in Spanish
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