Learn Spanish (Latin America): Él es el primer estudiante.

Él es el primer estudiante.

He is the first student.

Breakdown of Él es el primer estudiante.

Questions & Answers about Él es el primer estudiante.

Why is it primer and not primero?

The word primero (first) drops the final -o and becomes primer when it comes directly before a masculine singular noun. Here, it is placed right in front of the masculine noun estudiante.

How do we know estudiante is masculine here if it ends in -e?

The noun estudiante can be masculine or feminine depending on the person. Because we are talking about a male (Él), we use the masculine article el and the masculine adjective primer. If it were a female student, it would be Ella es la primera estudiante.

Why does the first Él have an accent mark, but el does not?

The accent mark shows the difference in meaning between two words that sound exactly the same. Él with an accent is the pronoun he, while el without an accent is the word the.

Why do we use es instead of está for this sentence?

We use es (from the verb ser) because it describes identity or a characteristic. Being the first student is an identifying fact about him in this context, so it uses ser rather than estar, which is used for temporary states, feelings, or locations.