Breakdown of El abuelo está leyendo el periódico y la noticia es interesante.
ser
to be
y
and
el abuelo
the grandfather
leer
to read
interesante
interesting
estar
to be (location/state)
el periódico
the newspaper
la noticia
the news
Questions & Answers about El abuelo está leyendo el periódico y la noticia es interesante.
Why is it leyendo with a 'y' instead of an 'i'?
The verb for 'to read' is leer. Normally, to make an '-ing' word (a gerund) for an '-er' verb, you take off the '-er' and add -iendo. That would give us leiendo. However, Spanish doesn't like having an unstressed 'i' trapped between two vowels. To make it easier to read and pronounce, the 'i' changes to a 'y', giving us the irregular gerund leyendo.
Why does this sentence use both está and es for 'is'?
This sentence is a perfect reminder of the two ways to say 'to be' in Spanish! We use está (from estar) for actions happening right now in the present continuous, like está leyendo (is reading). We use es (from ser) to describe basic traits or characteristics, like saying the article es interesante (is interesting).
The English translation says 'the news', but la noticia looks singular. Shouldn't it be plural?
In Spanish, una noticia refers to a single news story or a specific piece of news. If you want to talk about 'the news' as a whole (like a TV broadcast or a collection of stories), you would use the plural las noticias. Here, Grandpa is reading one specific interesting article, so the sentence uses the singular form.
Why doesn't interesante end in '-a' since la noticia is feminine?
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