Breakdown of El libro trata de la guerra.
el libro
the book
de
of
la guerra
the war
tratar
to be about, to deal with (a book, a film)
Questions & Answers about El libro trata de la guerra.
Why do we use trata de here instead of es sobre?
While you can say es sobre to mean "is about," using the verb tratar with the preposition de is the most natural and standard way in Spanish to express what a book, movie, or story is about.
I've seen se trata de used for "it is about." Why isn't it reflexive here?
When you name a specific subject like El libro, you use the non-reflexive tratar de. You only use the reflexive se trata de when the sentence is impersonal, meaning there is no specific subject. For example, if you just wanted to say "It is about the war" without mentioning the book, you would say Se trata de la guerra.
Does tratar de always mean "to be about"?
Not always! If you use an infinitive verb after tratar de, the meaning changes to "to try to" do something. For example, El autor trata de explicar la guerra means "The author tries to explain the war." Because it is followed by a noun (la guerra) in this sentence, it keeps the meaning "is about."
If the English sentence was simply "The book is about war" (without "the"), would we still use la in Spanish?
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