Log inSign up

La crisis económica es grave, mientras que la deuda nacional disminuye.

La crisis económica es grave, mientras que la deuda nacional disminuye.
The economic crisis is serious, whereas the national debt decreases.
From Lesson 555:Classifying adjectives (crisis económica)·Spanish (Spain)

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?
You can tell it is singular because of the singular article la and the singular verb es. Nouns ending in -is (like la crisis, la tesis, el análisis) don't change their spelling in the plural. To say 'the economic crises', you would just change the surrounding words: las crisis económicas.
Why use mientras que instead of just mientras?
While mientras usually indicates time ('while' two things happen simultaneously), adding que to make mientras que clearly sets up a contrast, meaning 'whereas.' Here, it contrasts the serious crisis with the decreasing debt.
The infinitive is disminuir. Why is there a 'y' in disminuye?
Verbs ending in -uir (like construir or disminuir) add a y before endings that don't start with an 'i'. This spelling change happens in present tense forms like disminuye (it decreases) to make the word's pronunciation flow naturally.

Learn La crisis económica es grave, mientras que la deuda nacional disminuye and more in Spanish

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Spanish →