Breakdown of Una ciudad es grande y un pueblo es pequeño.
ser
to be
y
and
grande
big
pequeño
small
un
a, an, some
el pueblo
the town, the village
la ciudad
the city
Questions & Answers about Una ciudad es grande y un pueblo es pequeño.
Why do we use "una" for city but "un" for town?
Nouns in Spanish have a gender. Pueblo ends in -o, which usually means it is masculine, so we use the masculine indefinite article un (a). Ciudad is feminine, so we use the feminine article una (a). A handy trick: Spanish words ending in -d are almost always feminine!
Why doesn't the adjective "grande" change to match the feminine word "ciudad"?
Adjectives usually change their ending to match the gender of the noun. For example, pequeño ends in -o to match the masculine pueblo. But adjectives that end in -e, like grande, are gender-neutral. You use grande for both masculine and feminine nouns.
We learned two verbs for "to be". Why do we use "es" instead of "está" here?
Could "una ciudad" also translate to "one city"?
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