Learn Spanish (Latin America): El dueño está exento del impuesto, es decir, él no lo paga. - The owner is exempt from the tax, that is, he does not pay it.

El dueño está exento del impuesto, es decir, él no lo paga.

The owner is exempt from the tax, that is, he does not pay it.

Breakdown of El dueño está exento del impuesto, es decir, él no lo paga.

él

no, not

estar

to be (location/state)

pagar

to pay

Questions & Answers about El dueño está exento del impuesto, es decir, él no lo paga.

How does es decir work in this sentence, and could I use o sea or esto es instead?

Yes, you can easily swap it for o sea or esto es. They all act as explicative discourse markers meaning "that is" or "in other words," used to clarify the previous statement. Notice that when they connect two clauses like this, they are always set off by commas.

Why do we use está instead of es with exento?

Exento (exempt) describes a condition or a state resulting from an action, so it pairs with estar. It is actually an irregular past participle of the verb eximir (to exempt), functioning here as an adjective to describe the owner's current status.

Is de the required preposition after exento?

Yes! Just like in English where you are exempt "from" something, in Spanish you are exento de something. Here it combines with the article el to form the mandatory contraction del impuesto.

Why include the pronoun él in the second clause when the subject is obviously the owner?

While you could simply say es decir, no lo paga (dropping the pronoun), including él after the discourse marker provides a nice rhythmic balance and adds a subtle emphasis. It firmly resets the listener's attention back to the owner as the one who isn't paying.