Learn Spanish (Spain): El presupuesto del electricista es más alto que nuestro presupuesto. - The electrician's quote is higher than our budget.

El presupuesto del electricista es más alto que nuestro presupuesto.

The electrician's quote is higher than our budget.

Breakdown of El presupuesto del electricista es más alto que nuestro presupuesto.

ser

to be

alto

tall / high (amount, level)

nuestro

our

del

of the / from the / about the (topic)

Questions & Answers about El presupuesto del electricista es más alto que nuestro presupuesto.

Wait, does 'presupuesto' translate to both 'quote' and 'budget' in this sentence?

Yes! Presupuesto is a very versatile financial word. It primarily means a 'budget' (the money you have set aside), but in Spain it is also the standard word for a 'quote' or 'estimate' provided by a professional for a job. The context usually makes it clear which meaning is intended.

'Electricista' ends in an 'a', so why do we use 'el' (inside 'del')?

Professions ending in -ista (like electricista, dentista, or periodista) use the exact same word for both masculine and feminine. To show the gender of the person, you just change the article. Here, del (the contraction of de + el) tells us this is a male electrician. If it were a female electrician, it would be de la electricista.

I always forget when to use 'que' or 'de' for the word 'than'. Why is it 'que' here?

You use más ... que when you are comparing two nouns, people, or concepts (in this case, the quote and the budget). You only use más de when you are comparing an amount to a specific number, such as más de cien euros (more than one hundred euros).

Could I avoid repeating the word 'presupuesto' at the end and just say 'higher than ours'?

Yes, absolutely! To say 'higher than ours' instead of 'higher than our budget', you would replace nuestro presupuesto with the possessive pronoun el nuestro. The sentence would then end smoothly with: ...es más alto que el nuestro.