Breakdown of A veces, el coral parece un ecosistema extraño.
un
a, an, some
a veces
sometimes
extraño
strange
parecer
to seem; to think of (what do you think of…?)
el ecosistema
the ecosystem
el coral
the coral
Questions & Answers about A veces, el coral parece un ecosistema extraño.
Why is it un ecosistema and not una ecosistema when the word ends in -a?
Ecosistema is a masculine noun, just like many other Spanish words ending in -ma that come from Greek (such as el problema, el sistema, and el tema). Because it is masculine, it takes the article un, and any adjectives describing it must also be masculine, which is why we see extraño instead of extraña.
Why is the verb parece used here instead of se parece a?
Parecer (without the reflexive pronoun) is used when something "seems" or "gives the impression of being" something else, as in this sentence. You use parecerse a when you are talking about a direct physical resemblance or similarity between two specific entities (for example, El coral se parece a una planta means "The coral looks like a plant").
What is the nuance between extraño and raro? Could I use raro here?
You could grammatically say un ecosistema raro, but extraño is a much better fit for this context. While both mean "strange" or "weird," extraño carries a stronger nuance of being "alien," "foreign," or "unknown." This perfectly captures the otherworldly, unfamiliar environment of a coral reef, whereas raro often just means something is odd or unusual.
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