Breakdown of Estos cuadernos son de nuestro profesor.
Questions & Answers about Estos cuadernos son de nuestro profesor.
Why is 'These' translated as Estos instead of Estes?
The singular word for "this" (masculine) is este, so it is very common for learners to guess the plural would be estes. However, the plural of este is actually estos. Because cuadernos (notebooks) is masculine and plural, we must use estos to match it. How does son de work here to show possession?
In Spanish, there is no apostrophe "s" ('s) to show that something belongs to someone. Instead, you have to say the item is "of" the owner. So, instead of saying "are our teacher's", Spanish phrases it as "are of our teacher" (son de nuestro profesor). Since there are multiple notebooks (cuadernos), why isn't it nuestros profesor?
Possessive words like nuestro (our) change to match the noun they are right next to, not the other things in the sentence. Here, nuestro is describing profesor. Because there is only one male teacher, it stays masculine and singular (nuestro), regardless of how many notebooks he owns! Why do we use son instead of están to say "are"?
You might remember that Spanish has two verbs for "to be": ser and estar. We use ser (which son comes from) to talk about possession and identity. Since we are stating who the notebooks belong to, we must use son. Learn Estos cuadernos son de nuestro profesor and more in Spanish
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