Breakdown of La facultad de ciencias está cerrada.
de
of
estar
to be (location/state)
cerrado
closed
la ciencia
the science
Questions & Answers about La facultad de ciencias está cerrada.
Does facultad mean the teaching staff of the science department?
No, this is a classic false friend. In Spanish, facultad refers to the university department, school, or the building itself (like the School of Science). If you want to talk about the teaching staff, you would use el profesorado or el cuerpo docente.
Why do we use está instead of es for a building being closed?
We use está because being closed is a state or the result of an action. Using es with a past participle creates the passive voice, which focuses on the action being done rather than the resulting state. For example, la puerta es cerrada por el guardia means the door is being closed by the guard right now or habitually.
Why is it de ciencias and not de las ciencias?
When a noun follows de to act as an adjective categorizing another noun (telling us what kind of faculty it is), we omit the definite article. Adding las would make it sound like you are referring to a specific, previously mentioned group of sciences rather than the general academic category.