Word
¿Por qué te divorcias de tu esposo?
Meaning
Why are you divorcing your husband?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of ¿Por qué te divorcias de tu esposo?
el esposo
husband
tu
your
por qué
why
divorciarse de
to divorce
Questions & Answers about ¿Por qué te divorcias de tu esposo?
Why is there a de before tu esposo? In English, we just say "divorcing your husband" without an extra word.
In Spanish, certain verbs must always pair with a specific preposition. To say you are divorcing someone, you use the combination divorciarse de. It might help to translate it in your head as "getting a divorce from." This is similar to how "to marry someone" is casarse con (literally "to get married with").
Why do we need the word te before the verb?
The verb for "to get divorced" is divorciarse, which is a reflexive verb (indicated by the -se at the end of the infinitive). Because the subject of this sentence is "you" (informal tú), you must use the matching reflexive pronoun te.
The translation says "are you divorcing," but isn't divorcias just the simple present tense ("you divorce")?
Yes! In Spanish, the simple present tense is very flexible. It is frequently used for actions happening right now or around this time, which English prefers to express with the present continuous ("are doing"). While you could technically say te estás divorciando, using the simple present te divorcias is incredibly common and natural here.
Why is Por qué written as two words with an accent mark?