Question 1

Why is it el chino and not just chino?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish, when you talk about a language as the subject of a sentence or in a broad sense, you usually put the definite article (el) in front of it. So, "Chinese is..." translates to El chino es....

Question 2

Why is it un idioma? Doesn't the -a at the end make it feminine?

Accepted Answer

Usually, yes! Words ending in -a are almost always feminine. However, idioma is one of a few rule-breakers (many of which come from ancient Greek) that end in -ma but are actually masculine. That's why it takes un instead of una. Another very common example you will see is el problema.

Question 3

Why does interesante come after idioma?

Accepted Answer

In English, we put the descriptive word before the noun ("an interesting language"). In Spanish, descriptive adjectives almost always come after the noun they describe. So, you say un idioma interesante (literally "a language interesting").

Question 4

Since idioma is masculine, shouldn't interesante change its ending?

Accepted Answer

Adjectives that end in -e, like interesante or inteligente, are unisex! They stay exactly the same for both masculine and feminine singular nouns. You only need to change them if the noun is plural, which you do by simply adding an -s.

El chino es un idioma interesante.

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