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El esquí es un deporte caro.

El esquí es un deporte caro.
Skiing is an expensive sport.
From Lesson 213:Football and other sports (marcar un gol, el futbolista)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about El esquí es un deporte caro.

Why do we need the article El here when in English we just say "Skiing"?
In Spanish, when you talk about concepts, sports, or things in a general sense as the subject of a sentence, you must include the definite article. That is why "Skiing" becomes El esquí.
Could I use the verb esquiar instead of the noun esquí to mean "Skiing"?
Yes! You can say Esquiar es un deporte caro. When translating an English word ending in "-ing" that acts as a noun, Spanish uses the infinitive of the verb. Because the sport also has a dedicated noun (el esquí), both options are perfectly natural.
Does esquí mean the sport of skiing or the physical ski itself?
It means both! In this sentence, el esquí refers to the sport of skiing in general. However, if you are talking about the equipment, un esquí is a single ski, and los esquís are a pair of skis.
Why do we use es instead of está? Can't the cost of a sport change?
While it is true that prices can fluctuate, here you are defining what kind of thing skiing is. Whenever you define or classify a subject using another noun phrase like un deporte caro, you must always use ser, never estar.

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