Question 1

Why does casi nunca go before the verb entrena?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish, negative words like nunca (never) can go directly before the verb. If you want to put it after the verb instead, you have to use a double negative by adding no before the verb. So, you could also say él no entrena casi nunca, but putting it before the verb is usually simpler and more common!

Question 2

I know nunca means never, but how do you use casi with other adverbs?

Accepted Answer

Casi means almost. Just like in English, you can pair it with different adverbs of frequency to change their meaning. Besides casi nunca (almost never), a very common combination is casi siempre (almost always).

Question 3

Why does él have an accent mark, but El at the beginning of the sentence doesn't?

Accepted Answer

The accent mark tells apart two words that sound exactly the same but have different meanings. Él with an accent means he, while el without an accent means the (like in el problema).

Question 4

Why do we use es instead of está when saying the problem is...?

Accepted Answer

We use es (from the verb ser) because we are defining or identifying what the problem actually is. Think of it like an equal sign: the problem = he almost never trains. When connecting or equating two ideas like this, we always use ser.

El problema es que él casi nunca entrena.

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