Learn Spanish (Latin America): El profesor ayuda porque es amable.

El profesor ayuda porque es amable.

The teacher helps because he is kind.

Breakdown of El profesor ayuda porque es amable.

Questions & Answers about El profesor ayuda porque es amable.

Why is porque written as one word here without an accent?

In Spanish, porque (written as one word with no accent) means "because." It is used to give a reason or answer a question, just like in this sentence. If you want to ask "why?", you use por qué (two words, with an accent on the e).

The English translation says "because he is kind." Why is there no word for "he" before es?

In Spanish, you can often leave out the subject pronoun (like él for "he") if it is already clear who you are talking about. Since the sentence just mentioned el profesor, the verb es is enough to mean "he is."

Why do we use es instead of está for "is"?

We use es (from the verb ser) to describe general characteristics or personality traits. Since being kind is part of the teacher's personality, we use es. If we used está, it would imply he is just acting nicely right now but isn't necessarily a kind person overall.

If the sentence was about a female teacher, would amable change to amabla?