Log inSign up

Ellos son hombres fuertes.

Ellos son hombres fuertes.
They are strong men.
From Lesson 3:Plural pronouns and 'ser' (somos, sois, son)·Spanish (Spain)

Breakdown of Ellos son hombres fuertes.

ser
to be
el hombre
the man
fuerte
strong / loud
ellos
they (m)

Questions & Answers about Ellos son hombres fuertes.

Why use Ellos instead of Ellas?
Ellos is the pronoun for 'they' when referring to a group of men, or a mixed group of men and women. Since the sentence is about hombres (men), we must use the masculine Ellos. If it were about a group of women, we would use Ellas.
Why do we use son here instead of another word for 'are'?
Son is the 'they' form of the verb ser (to be). In Spanish, we use ser to talk about permanent traits and identity. Being 'strong men' is treated as a core characteristic here, so we use son.
Why is the word order hombres fuertes instead of fuertes hombres?
In English, we put the describing word before the noun, like 'strong men'. In Spanish, it is almost always the reverse. The noun comes first, followed by the description: hombres (men) + fuertes (strong).
Would fuertes change if we were talking about women instead of men?
No, it would still be fuertes. Adjectives that end in -o usually change to -a for feminine words. But adjectives that end in -e (like the singular word fuerte) do not change for gender. We just add an -s to make them plural for both masculine and feminine nouns.

Learn Ellos son hombres fuertes and more in Spanish

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Spanish →