Breakdown of ¿El río es menos peligroso que el océano?
ser
to be
peligroso
dangerous
que
that / than
menos
to (telling time) / minus / less
el río
the river
el océano
the ocean
Questions & Answers about ¿El río es menos peligroso que el océano?
How do we say 'less... than' in this sentence?
To make a comparison of inferiority, we use the formula menos + adjective + que. Here, we use menos peligroso que to say 'less dangerous than'.
Why do we use que here to mean 'than'?
Does the adjective peligroso describe the river or the ocean?
It describes el río (the river), which is the main subject we are talking about. Because el río is a masculine singular noun, the adjective must also be masculine and singular (peligroso). If the first noun were feminine, like la playa (the beach), the adjective would change to peligrosa regardless of what the second noun is.
How do we know this is a question? The word order looks exactly like a normal statement.
In English, we usually swap the word order to ask a question ('The river is' becomes 'Is the river?'). In Spanish, you do not have to swap the words. You can use the exact same word order as a regular statement (El río es...) and simply wrap it in question marks (¿ and ?). When speaking, you just raise the pitch of your voice at the end to show you are asking something.
Why is there an accent mark on the 'i' in río?
The accent mark tells us to put the stress of our voice on the 'i', breaking what would normally be one blended syllable into two separate sounds. Because of the accent mark, it is pronounced as two clear beats: 'REE-o'.
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