Breakdown of La oficina está limpia y ordenada.
y
and
estar
to be (location/state)
la oficina
the office
limpio
clean
ordenado
tidy
Questions & Answers about La oficina está limpia y ordenada.
Why does this sentence use y instead of changing it to e?
The rule to change y (and) to e only applies when the following word starts with an "ee" sound (spelled with i- or hi-). Here, the next word is ordenada, which starts with an "o" sound, so we just keep the normal y. (Note: the word for "or" changes from o to u before words starting with o-, but here we are saying "and").
Why do we use está instead of es for "is"?
We use estar for physical states or conditions that can change. A room being clean (limpia) and tidy (ordenada) is its current condition, not a permanent characteristic, because it could easily get dirty or messy later!
Why do both adjectives end in -a?
In Spanish, adjectives must match the gender and number of the noun they describe. Since la oficina is a feminine, singular noun, both base adjectives limpio (clean) and ordenado (tidy) must change to their feminine singular forms: limpia and ordenada.
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