Breakdown of Si hay olas grandes, mi madre no sale del puerto.
grande
big
no
no / not
mi
my
la madre
the mother
del
of the / from the / about the (topic)
salir
to go out, to leave / to appear, to come out (on the body)
hay
there is / there are
el puerto
the port
si
if
la ola
the wave
Questions & Answers about Si hay olas grandes, mi madre no sale del puerto.
Why are both verbs in the present tense here?
In Spanish, this first conditional structure is used for highly likely situations. The pattern is Si (if) + present tense + present, future, or imperative. Using the present tense for both halves (hay and sale) is very common when talking about general facts or habits, meaning 'if A happens, B happens'.
Why is hay used instead of a plural verb form since olas (waves) is plural?
Hay translates to both 'there is' and 'there are'. It is a special impersonal verb form that never changes to match the number of the noun. You use hay for both singular and plural objects.
Olas is a feminine plural noun, so why is the adjective grandes instead of 'grandas'?
Adjectives that end in -e in their singular form, like grande, are gender-neutral. They do not have separate masculine or feminine forms. To make them plural, you simply add an -s, making it grandes to match the plural olas.
Why does the sentence say del puerto instead of de el puerto?
In Spanish, whenever the preposition de (from/of) is immediately followed by the masculine singular article el (the), they must combine to form the contraction del. Because puerto is masculine singular, de el strictly becomes del.
Does the verb sale always mean 'leave'?
Sale comes from the verb salir. It can mean 'to leave' a place (like leaving the port) or 'to go out' socially. When you specify the exact place you are leaving from, you always pair it with the preposition de, which gives us sale de (or in this case, sale del).
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