Breakdown of ¿Es ella la médica nueva?
ser
to be
ella
she / her (after a preposition)
nuevo
new / another, different (before the noun)
la médica
the doctor
Questions & Answers about ¿Es ella la médica nueva?
Why does the verb Es come before ella in this question?
In Spanish, a common way to form a yes/no question is to flip the subject and the verb. Instead of the statement Ella es (She is), you use Es ella (Is she). You can also just say ¿Ella es la médica nueva? with a rising tone in your voice, but flipping the word order makes it instantly clear that you are asking a question.
Why is the word order médica nueva and not nueva médica?
In English, describing words (adjectives) come before the noun, but in Spanish, they almost always come after. So, 'the new doctor' translates literally as 'the doctor new' (la médica nueva).
I learned that we don't use words like el or la with professions. Why do we need la here?
You are right that if you simply state someone's job, you drop the article (for example, Ella es médica translates to 'She is a doctor'). However, because we are talking about a specific doctor ('the' doctor) and we added a describing word (nueva), the rule changes and we must include the article la.
Does the word for doctor change depending on who you are talking about?
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