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¿Dónde están los diecisiete chicos?

¿Dónde están los diecisiete chicos?
Where are the seventeen boys?
From Lesson 39:Numbers 11 to 20 (once, doce, trece)·Spanish (Spain)

Breakdown of ¿Dónde están los diecisiete chicos?

el chico
the boy
dónde
where
estar
to be (location/state)
diecisiete
seventeen

Questions & Answers about ¿Dónde están los diecisiete chicos?

How do you build the word diecisiete for seventeen?
It comes from combining diez (ten), y (and), and siete (seven). When pushed together into one word, the z changes to a c, and the y becomes an i, making diecisiete. This is the exact same pattern used for the numbers 16, 18, and 19.
Why do we put los before the number?
Just like in English, you can place a number right after the word for 'the'. Los is the plural masculine form of 'the'. So los diecisiete chicos translates perfectly to 'the seventeen boys'.
Why is the verb están used here instead of son?
Están comes from the verb estar, which we use to talk about location. Since we are asking where the boys are, we must use estar. We use the plural 'they' form, están, because there are seventeen boys.
Why does Dónde have an accent mark?
In Spanish, all question words get a written accent mark when they are used to ask a question. So, dónde (where) always gets an accent over the o when asking a question.

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