Breakdown of El psicólogo explica que lo esencial es dormir.
ser
to be
dormir
to sleep
explicar
to explain
que
that / than
Questions & Answers about El psicólogo explica que lo esencial es dormir.
Why does the sentence use lo instead of el before esencial?
lo is the neuter article. When you put lo in front of an adjective like esencial, it turns it into an abstract concept meaning "the essential thing" or "that which is essential". Since we aren't talking about a specific masculine noun, we use lo instead of el.
Where is the word for "thing" in the Spanish sentence?
You don't need a separate word for "thing"! The grammar structure of lo plus an adjective inherently translates to "the [adjective] thing" or "the [adjective] part". So, lo esencial covers the entire meaning of "the essential thing" all by itself.
Why is the verb dormir left in the infinitive (unconjugated) form at the end?
Why do we use es instead of está in this sentence?