Breakdown of Está casado con mi prima.
estar
to be (location/state)
la prima
the female cousin
mi
my
con
with
casado
married
Questions & Answers about Está casado con mi prima.
Why does this sentence use está instead of es for being married?
In Spanish, marital statuses like being married (casado), single (soltero), or divorced (divorciado) are treated as states of being or conditions, so they typically use estar. While you might occasionally hear ser used to define a legal category, estar is the standard and most natural choice you should use.
Doesn't con mean 'with'? Why not use a for 'married to'?
English says 'married to', but Spanish expresses this as 'married with' (casado con). Translating 'to' directly as a is a very common trap for English speakers. Always use con when stating who someone is married to.
If the cousin (prima) is female, why is the word casado masculine?
The adjective casado describes the subject of the sentence (the hidden 'he' who is married), not the cousin. Since the subject is a man, we use the masculine casado. If a woman were married to your cousin, you would change it to Está casada con mi prima.
Why is there no word for 'he' at the beginning of this sentence?
In Spanish, subject pronouns like él (he) are frequently dropped when the context makes them obvious. Here, the verb está combined with the masculine adjective casado makes it completely clear we are talking about a man. You could say Él está casado con mi prima, but leaving the pronoun out is much more natural.
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