El octavo mes es agosto.

Breakdown of El octavo mes es agosto.

ser
to be
el mes
the month
agosto
August
octavo
eighth

Questions & Answers about El octavo mes es agosto.

Why does octavo come before mes? Don't adjectives usually go after the noun?
You are right that most adjectives come after the noun. However, ordinal numbers (numbers that show order, like octavo, primero, or segundo) are an exception. They almost always go directly before the noun they describe.
Does octavo change its ending depending on the noun?
Yes! Because mes (month) is a masculine noun, we use the masculine form octavo. If you were talking about a feminine word, like a week (semana), it would change to octava (for example, la octava semana).
Wait, shouldn't octavo drop its final -o before a masculine noun?
No, that truncation rule only applies to primero (first) and tercero (third), which shrink to primer and tercer right before a masculine singular noun. All other ordinal numbers, including octavo, keep their full endings.
Why isn't agosto capitalized?
In Spanish, the days of the week and the months of the year are never capitalized unless they happen to be the very first word of a sentence. So, August is just written as agosto.
Why do we use es instead of está here?
We use es (from the verb ser) because we are stating a permanent fact and identifying a time. The verb ser is always used when defining things or talking about dates, days, and months.

Learn El octavo mes es agosto and more in Spanish

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • Practice with interactive exercises
  • Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • Learn at your own pace — completely free