Breakdown of El sur es el lugar más húmedo del país.
ser
to be
del
of the / from the / about the (topic)
más
more; else (anything else, nobody else)
el sur
the south
el lugar
the place
el país
the country
húmedo
humid / damp, wet
Questions & Answers about El sur es el lugar más húmedo del país.
Why is it el lugar más húmedo instead of el más húmedo lugar?
In Spanish, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe. The relative superlative formula is [definite article] + [noun] + más/menos + [adjective]. So, "the most humid place" translates in that exact order: el lugar más húmedo (literally "the place most humid").
The English translation says "in the country", but doesn't del mean "of the"?
Yes, del is the contraction of de + el (of the). In English, we say the biggest or most humid "in" a place. But in Spanish, relative superlatives always use de to set the group or area. So del país literally means "of the country", which is the correct way to express "in the country" in this context.
Does the adjective húmedo agree with sur or with lugar?
Why use es here instead of está? Isn't humidity a temporary weather condition?
While you might use estar to say a place is humid today (está húmedo hoy), this sentence is stating a geographical fact. When you use a superlative to define what something is permanently ("it is the most humid place"), you use ser (es) to describe that core characteristic.
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