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Dicen que las drogas son un problema grande.

Dicen que las drogas son un problema grande.
They say drugs are a big problem.
From Lesson 246:Impersonal third-person plural (dicen que)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of Dicen que las drogas son un problema grande.

ser
to be
grande
big
el problema
the problem
decir
to say, to tell
la droga
the drug

Questions & Answers about Dicen que las drogas son un problema grande.

Who exactly is "they" in Dicen?
In this sentence, Dicen doesn't refer to a specific group of people. Instead, it uses the impersonal third-person plural. It works just like the English phrase "they say" or "people say" when talking about a general rumor, opinion, or fact where the specific speaker doesn't matter.
In English, we can say "They say drugs are a big problem" without the word "that." Can I drop que here?
No, you can't. In English, dropping "that" is completely normal, but in Spanish, the conjunction que is absolutely required to connect the two parts of the sentence (Dicen and las drogas son...).
Why is it las drogas and not just drogas?
When you talk about things in a general sense or refer to entire categories (like "drugs," "love," or "cats"), Spanish requires a definite article (el, la, los, or las). English usually drops the article in these cases.
Wait, why is it un problema and not una problema?
Problema is one of those tricky nouns that ends in -a but is actually masculine, which is why it uses un. Many words ending in -ma (especially those with Greek origins, like el sistema, el tema, and el idioma) are masculine.
Could I say un gran problema instead of un problema grande?
Yes, you could! When grande comes before a singular noun, it shortens to gran. Both un problema grande and un gran problema mean "a big problem," though putting it before the noun as gran sometimes makes it sound a bit more subjective or like "a major problem."

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