Learn Spanish (Latin America): El hijo de la tía es joven.

El hijo de la tía es joven.

The aunt's son is young.

Breakdown of El hijo de la tía es joven.

Questions & Answers about El hijo de la tía es joven.

Why does the Spanish sentence say El hijo de la tía instead of using an apostrophe like "la tía's hijo"?

Spanish doesn't use an apostrophe "s" ('s) to show possession. Instead, you have to use the word de (of) and flip the order of the words. So, "the aunt's son" becomes el hijo de la tía (literally: the son of the aunt).

Why do we use es instead of está for someone who is young? Isn't age temporary?

Even though youth doesn't last forever, Spanish treats being young (joven) or old (viejo) as a basic characteristic of a person rather than a temporary state or mood. Because it describes a core physical trait, we use es (from the verb ser) instead of está (from estar).

If the aunt had a daughter (la hija), would joven change to "jovena"?

No, it would stay exactly the same! Adjectives that end in a consonant (like the "n" in joven) usually have the same form for both masculine and feminine words. You would say la hija de la tía es joven.

Do I need to include la before tía? Could I just say El hijo de tía?