Learn Spanish (Latin America): Esta dieta no es tan difícil como la otra. - This diet is not as difficult as the other one.

Esta dieta no es tan difícil como la otra.

This diet is not as difficult as the other one.

Breakdown of Esta dieta no es tan difícil como la otra.

Questions & Answers about Esta dieta no es tan difícil como la otra.

Why is it Esta dieta and not Esto dieta?

Esta means "this" and must match the feminine, singular noun it describes (dieta). You only use esto when talking about an abstract idea or an unknown object (like "this thing"), never right next to a specific noun.

Why do we use es instead of está here? Isn't a diet temporary?

Even though you might only be on a diet for a short time, being "difficult" is a defining characteristic of the diet itself, not a physical state, mood, or location. For defining characteristics, we always use ser (which gives us es).

How does the phrase tan difícil como work?

In Spanish, to say two things are equal in some way, you use the structure tan + [adjective] + como. Here, tan means "as", and como also means "as", giving us exactly "as difficult as".

Why does the sentence end with la otra instead of saying la otra dieta?

La otra translates to "the other one". Because we already established we are talking about a dieta (a feminine noun), we can just use the feminine article la before otra to stand in for "the other diet". This avoids repeating the noun unnecessarily.