Breakdown of Ellas están contentas porque tienen tanto espacio como nosotras.
nosotros
we / us (after a preposition)
ellas
they (f)
estar
to be (location/state)
porque
because
Questions & Answers about Ellas están contentas porque tienen tanto espacio como nosotras.
Why is it tanto and not tanta or tantos here?
The word tanto means "as much" or "as many" when comparing quantities of things. It always has to match the gender and number of the noun it describes. Since espacio (space) is a masculine singular noun, we use the masculine singular form tanto.
Why doesn't the Spanish sentence end with a verb to mean "as we do"?
In English, we often end comparisons with helper verbs like "do" or "are" (as in "as much space as we do"). In Spanish, the comparison structure tanto ... como just needs the subject pronoun at the end. Saying como nosotras (literally "as we") is perfectly complete.
Why do we use están instead of son for "are"?
Why does the sentence use contentas and nosotras?