Learn Spanish (Spain): Esta es la casa donde nací. - This is the house where I was born.

Esta es la casa donde nací.

This is the house where I was born.

Breakdown of Esta es la casa donde nací.

ser

to be

la casa

the house / home (also "at home")

este

this (m.sg., also esta, estos, estas, esto)

nacer

to be born

Questions & Answers about Esta es la casa donde nací.

Why does the Spanish sentence use nací instead of translating the verb "to be" for "was born"?

In English, "to be born" is a phrase that requires the verb "to be". In Spanish, nacer is an active verb that all by itself means "to be born". Because of this, you just use its simple past tense. nací translates perfectly to "I was born" (literally, "I born").

Why is there no accent mark on donde?

You only put an accent mark on dónde when it is a question word, like in ¿Dónde está la casa? (Where is the house?). In this sentence, donde is not asking a question; it is just a connecting word linking the house to the action that happened there, so it drops the accent mark.

Why is the first word Esta instead of Esto?

Esta means "this" and is feminine because it refers directly to la casa (the house), which is a feminine noun. Esto is a neutral word used only when you are talking about an unknown object, an abstract idea, or a general situation, rather than a specific masculine or feminine noun.

I often mix up ser and estar. Why do we use es here when we are talking about a physical place?

We use es (from the verb ser) because we are defining or identifying what the object is ("This thing here is the house"). If we were talking about where the house is located physically ("The house is in Madrid"), we would switch to está (from the verb estar).