Questions & Answers about Un pueblo es pequeño y la ciudad es grande.
Why is it un pueblo and not uno pueblo?
Un is the masculine singular word for "a" or "an". Even though the Spanish word for the number "one" is uno, you must drop the final -o when it is placed directly before a masculine noun like pueblo.
Why does ciudad use the feminine article la if it doesn't end in -a?
While many feminine words end in -a, words that end in the letters -dad (like ciudad or universidad) are almost always feminine in Spanish. That is why it takes the feminine article la.
Why doesn't the word grande change to match the feminine word ciudad?
Adjectives that end in -o change to -a for feminine words, which is why we would use pequeña instead of pequeño for a feminine word. However, adjectives that end in -e (like grande) do not change for gender. They stay exactly the same for both masculine and feminine nouns.
Why do we use es to say "is" instead of está?