El cuerpo del hombre es grande y fuerte.

Questions & Answers about El cuerpo del hombre es grande y fuerte.

Why doesn't the Spanish sentence use an 's to say the man's body?
Spanish doesn't use an apostrophe-s to show ownership. Instead, you always have to flip the phrase to say the thing being owned, followed by de (of), and then the owner. That is why the sentence is structured as El cuerpo del hombre (The body of the man).
Where does the word del come from?
del is a mandatory combination of two words: de (of) and el (the). In Spanish, whenever de is followed immediately by the masculine word for the (el), they must smash together to form del. So, del hombre means of the man.
Why do we use es instead of está for is in this sentence?
We use es (from the verb ser) because being large and strong are treated as core physical traits or permanent characteristics. You would use a form of estar for temporary states, like if his body was currently tired or injured.
Since cuerpo is a masculine word, shouldn't the adjectives grande and fuerte end in -o?
Not all Spanish adjectives change their ending to show gender. Adjectives that end in -e in their dictionary form, like grande and fuerte, stay exactly the same for both masculine and feminine nouns. You only need to change them if the noun is plural, which would add an -s to make grandes and fuertes.

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