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Ella no habla inglés, pero estudia mucho.

Ella no habla inglés, pero estudia mucho.
She does not speak English, but she studies a lot.
From Lesson 19:Regular -ar verbs·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Ella no habla inglés, pero estudia mucho.

Why does the sentence use habla and estudia instead of ending in '-ar'?
In Spanish, verbs change their endings to match the person doing the action. The dictionary forms are hablar (to speak) and estudiar (to study). Since we are talking about ella (she), we drop the '-ar' and add '-a' to get habla and estudia.
Why is there no 'she' before estudia?
Spanish often drops subject pronouns (like ella) when it is already clear who we are talking about. Since the sentence starts with Ella, we already know who is studying, so we do not need to repeat it before estudia.
Why does no come before the verb instead of after?
In Spanish, to make a sentence negative, you simply put no directly before the conjugated verb. So 'she does not speak' becomes ella no habla.
Why is inglés not capitalized?
Unlike in English, names of languages (like inglés or español) are not capitalized in Spanish unless they are at the very beginning of a sentence.
Could estudia mucho also mean 'she is studying a lot'?
Yes! In Spanish, the simple present tense (estudia) can mean both 'she studies' (a habit or routine) and 'she is studying' (happening right now). You can usually tell which one it means from the context.

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