Breakdown of ¿Hay una cuarentena de pancartas donde están los estudiantes?
el estudiante
the student
de
from / of
una
a, an (feminine)
estar
to be (location/state)
haber
to be (there is / there are)
donde
where (relative)
la pancarta
the banner
la cuarentena
the about forty
Questions & Answers about ¿Hay una cuarentena de pancartas donde están los estudiantes?
How does cuarentena mean 'about forty'? I thought it meant 'quarantine'.
It means both! Like other numbers with the -ena suffix (such as docena for a dozen, or decena for about ten), una cuarentena is a collective noun meaning 'a group of about forty'. Because historical medical isolations lasted forty days, the same word became the standard term for 'quarantine' in Spanish.
Why do we need una and de around cuarentena? Why not just say Hay cuarentena pancartas?
What exactly are pancartas?
Pancartas are 'banners', 'signs', or 'placards', specifically the kind people hold up at protests, strikes, or demonstrations. This vocabulary word fits perfectly in a sentence about a large group of students gathering!
Why do we use están for the students' location here instead of son?
Even though an event like a protest uses ser for its location (for example, La protesta es en la plaza), here we are just talking about the physical location of the people themselves (los estudiantes), so we stick to the standard rule of using estar for physical location.
Learn ¿Hay una cuarentena de pancartas donde están los estudiantes and more in Spanish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free