Breakdown of El gato está en el dormitorio.
el gato
the cat
en
in / on / by (means of transport) / about (after pensar)
estar
to be (location/state)
el dormitorio
the bedroom
Questions & Answers about El gato está en el dormitorio.
Why do we use está instead of es in this sentence?
Why does the sentence use en el instead of the contraction del?
The contraction del combines de (of/from) and el (the). We only use it when saying something is from a place or belongs to it. Here, the cat is located inside the room, so we need the preposition en (in/on/at) followed by el. If the cat was coming from the room, we would say viene del dormitorio.
Does en always mean 'in'?
En is a very flexible preposition. Depending on the context, it can mean 'in', 'on', or 'at'. Here, because a bedroom is an enclosed space, it translates perfectly to 'in'.
What if it was a female cat?
You would change the masculine el gato to the feminine la gata. The rest of the sentence remains exactly the same: La gata está en el dormitorio.
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