Están divorciados desde el año pasado.

Questions & Answers about Están divorciados desde el año pasado.

Why does this sentence use estar (están) instead of ser for being divorced? Isn't divorce a permanent status?
Even though being divorced seems permanent, Spanish traditionally treats marital statuses (like soltero, casado, or divorciado) as states of being, so you use estar. Think of it as the current state resulting from a past action, rather than an inherent characteristic.
The English translation uses the present perfect (have been divorced), but están is in the simple present tense. Why?
In Spanish, when a state started in the past and is still continuing right now, you use the present tense along with desde (since). Because they are still divorced today, Spanish literally says they are divorced since last year.
Could I use desde hace here instead of just desde?
Not with el año pasado. You use desde to point to a specific starting date or time in the past, like last year or yesterday. You use desde hace when counting the amount of time that has passed, like in desde hace un año (for one year).
Why does divorciados end in -os?
Here, divorciado is a past participle being used as an adjective. Whenever you use an adjective with estar to describe a state, it must match the subject in gender and number. Since the hidden subject ellos is plural, the adjective becomes divorciados.

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