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Mi tía es cocinera en un restaurante.

Mi tía es cocinera en un restaurante.
My aunt is a cook in a restaurant.
From Lesson 96:Jobs and workplaces (el mecánico, el despacho)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Mi tía es cocinera en un restaurante.

Why isn't there an 'una' before 'cocinera'?
In Spanish, when you state someone's profession using the verb ser (like es here), you do not use the indefinite article (un or una). You just say es cocinera. However, if you added an adjective to describe what kind of cook she is, you would add the article back in: es una buena cocinera (she is a good cook).
Why do we use 'es' instead of 'está' for a job?
Professions and occupations are considered a core part of someone's identity in Spanish, so we always use the verb ser (here, es) rather than estar. Even if she might change jobs in the future, her current identity is a cook, which requires ser.
If my uncle were the cook, how would this sentence change?
You would need to change the feminine words to masculine to match his gender. My uncle is mi tío, and the masculine form of the profession is cocinero. The sentence would become: Mi tío es cocinero en un restaurante.
Why does tía have an accent mark on the i?
The accent mark breaks the combination of vowels so that you pronounce the i and the a in two distinct syllables (tí-a) instead of blending them into one. It tells you to put the spoken stress firmly on the i.

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