Breakdown of La crisis económica es grave, mientras que la deuda nacional disminuye.
ser
to be
grave
serious (severe)
la deuda
the debt
la crisis
the crisis
Questions & Answers about La crisis económica es grave, mientras que la deuda nacional disminuye.
Why must económica and nacional go strictly after their nouns here?
Both are relational adjectives in this context—they classify the type of crisis or debt rather than just describing a quality. In Spanish, classifying adjectives always go directly after the noun. Placing them before the noun would either be grammatically wrong or completely change their meaning.
Could I say the crisis is muy económica to mean it is very much an economic issue?
No, relational adjectives like económica and nacional cannot take degree modifiers like muy (very) or bastante (quite). They are absolute categories: a crisis is either economic or it isn't. (Note: If you say a shop is muy económica, the adjective changes meaning entirely to become a regular descriptive adjective meaning 'very cheap'!)
Crisis ends in an 's'. How do I know if it is singular or plural here?
Why use mientras que instead of just mientras?