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El marido de mi hermana es simpático.

El marido de mi hermana es simpático.
My sister's husband is nice.
From Lesson 18:Possessive adjectives (mi, tu, su)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El marido de mi hermana es simpático.

Why doesn't it say mi hermana's marido?
Spanish doesn't use an apostrophe and an 's' to show possession. Instead, you have to use the word de (of) and flip the order. So, 'my sister's husband' becomes el marido de mi hermana, which literally translates to 'the husband of my sister'.
Why is it mi hermana instead of a feminine word like mía?
The short possessive adjectives mi (my), tu (your), and su (his/her/their) only change to match whether a word is singular or plural (like using mis for plural words). They don't change for masculine or feminine. So you say mi hermana and mi marido. Only nuestro (our) changes for both gender and number!
Does simpático agree with the husband or the sister?
It agrees with the husband! Since the husband (el marido) is the subject of the sentence and the one who is nice, simpático ends in -o for masculine singular. If we were saying the sister is nice, it would be La hermana de mi marido es simpática.
Does simpático mean 'sympathetic'?
No, it is a false friend (a word that looks like English but means something else). Simpático is a very common word in Spanish that just means someone is nice, friendly, or pleasant to be around. To say someone is sympathetic, you would use a word like comprensivo.

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