Questions & Answers about El río es el mismo.
Why do we use el before mismo?
Just like in English where we say "the same", Spanish uses a definite article (like el or la) before mismo. Since río (river) is masculine and singular, we use el mismo. If we were talking about a mountain (la montaña), it would be la misma. This lesson is about comparatives like más que (more than). How does el mismo fit into comparing things?
While más que and menos que (less than) show a difference, el mismo is used to express exact equality. If you wanted to compare the river to something else and say "the same as", you would still use que: El río es el mismo que vimos ayer (The river is the same as we saw yesterday). Why do we use es instead of está? Isn't a river always flowing and changing?
We use es (from the verb ser) because we are talking about the core identity of the river, not a temporary physical state like being muddy or flooded. We are saying it is the exact same river by name or identity, which makes it a defining characteristic. How would this sentence change if we were talking about multiple rivers?
You would need to make every part of the sentence plural: Los ríos son los mismos. Notice how el mismo changes to los mismos to match the masculine, plural subject. Learn El río es el mismo and more in Spanish
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