Questions & Answers about ¿Es rico el médico?
Why are the words in this order: Es (Is) rico (rich) el médico (the doctor)?
In Spanish yes/no questions, it is very common to invert the word order. The verb (Es) comes first, followed by the adjective (rico), and the subject (el médico) gets placed at the very end. While ¿Es el médico rico? is also grammatically correct, putting the subject at the end sounds much more natural to native speakers.
Do I have to change the word order to make this a question?
Not always! You can use the exact same word order as a normal statement (El médico es rico) and just raise the pitch of your voice at the end to turn it into a question: ¿El médico es rico?. The upside-down question mark (¿) at the beginning warns you to start using that questioning tone right away.
Why does this sentence use es (from the verb ser) instead of está? Can't a person's wealth change?
How would this sentence change if we were asking about a female doctor?
You would change the masculine subject el médico to the feminine la médica. Because adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe, rico must also change to its feminine form, rica. The new sentence would be: ¿Es rica la médica?
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