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El vaso está lleno de agua.

El vaso está lleno de agua.
The glass is full of water.
From Lesson 32:In and by (en)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El vaso está lleno de agua.

Why do we use está instead of es here?
We use está (from the verb estar) because being full is a temporary state or condition. If you drink the water, the glass will be empty! We use ser (like es) for permanent characteristics, such as what the glass is made of.
Would lleno change if we were talking about a cup (la taza) instead of a glass (el vaso)?
Yes! Lleno is an adjective describing the glass, which is a masculine noun (el vaso). If we used a feminine noun like la taza (the cup), it would change to match it: La taza está llena de agua.
I learned earlier that agua takes the masculine word for 'the' (el agua). Why isn't it del agua here?
Because we are talking about water in general, not a specific body of water. Just like in English you say 'full of water', not 'full of the water'. Spanish does the same thing here, so we just use de (of) plus the noun agua without any word for 'the'.
Since we are learning about using en for locations, could I say lleno en agua to mean the water is located in the glass?
No, you must use de here. When talking about what an object contains or is filled with, Spanish always uses lleno de (full of). Save en for saying where the glass itself is located, like El vaso está en la mesa (The glass is on the table).

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