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El respirar en el sauna es muy relajante.

El respirar en el sauna es muy relajante.
Breathing in the sauna is very relaxing.
From Lesson 475:Infinitives as subjects (el + infinitive)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of El respirar en el sauna es muy relajante.

ser
to be
en
in / on / at
muy
very
respirar
to breathe
relajante
relaxing
el sauna
sauna

Questions & Answers about El respirar en el sauna es muy relajante.

Why do we use el before the verb respirar here?
In Spanish, an infinitive verb can act as a noun. While you can often just say respirar (breathing) at the start of a sentence, adding the masculine article el turns it into an articulated infinitive. This puts slightly more weight or emphasis on the action, treating it conceptually as "the act of breathing" as the subject of the sentence.
Is it grammatically incorrect to leave out el and just say Respirar en el sauna...?
No, it is perfectly correct! Respirar en el sauna es muy relajante sounds very natural and is actually more common in everyday, casual speech. Adding el just gives the sentence a slightly more formal or reflective tone.
Wait, isn't sauna a feminine noun? Why does it say el sauna?
This is a regional difference. Because sauna is a loanword from Finnish, its gender varies in the Spanish-speaking world. In most of Latin America, it is treated as masculine (el sauna). In Spain, it is feminine (la sauna). Both are correct, but since we focus on Latin American Spanish, we use the masculine form here.
Why use es instead of está for "is very relaxing"? Doesn't relaxing describe a state or feeling?
While the result of the sauna makes you feel relaxed (which would use estar, as in estoy relajado), here we are describing the inherent characteristic of the activity itself. Because "being relaxing" is a core quality of the action rather than a temporary state, we must use ser (es).
Is relajante the exact equivalent of the English "-ing" verb in "relaxing"?
Not exactly. In English, "relaxing" can be a verb action or an adjective. In Spanish, the gerund action (relajando) is strictly used for actions in progress. To describe something that causes relaxation (an adjective), Spanish uses the suffix -ante or -ente. So, el respirar is a relajante (relax-causing) activity, and it matches the singular masculine subject.

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