Questions & Answers about ¿Salan el queso de oveja?
Why does the sentence use salan (do they salt) if it's asking a general question about cheese?
In Spanish, using the third-person plural (salan) without a specific subject is a common way to express an impersonal or general action, just like the "generic they" in English ("Do they salt the sheep cheese around here?"). You could also use the passive se and ask ¿Se sala el queso de oveja? (Is the sheep cheese salted?).
Wait, doesn't salan mean "they leave"?
Why is it queso de oveja instead of just combining the nouns like we do in English?
Unlike English, which easily stacks nouns together (like "sheep cheese" or "shoe box"), Spanish generally doesn't use nouns as direct adjectives. Instead, you connect them using de to show origin, purpose, or material, resulting in queso de oveja (literally, "cheese of sheep").
Do we need to say queso de leche de oveja to specify that it's made from sheep's milk?