Advertisement

Log In

You don't need to create an account to use this site. Please share on facebook. --------------------
¿Dónde esta? Instrucciones
Spanish - Spanish Instructions

Return

¿Dónde está? - Where is?
¿Dónde están? - Where are?

This is a very simple and useful phrase,

If you want to know where the bathroom is,
¿Dónde está el baño?
If you want to know where your socks are:
¿Dónde están calcetines?
Question: Why did you use "están" and not está
with the second sentence, "¿Dónd están calcetines?"
Answer. Because "calcetines" is plural, so you want to
say "they are" - están";.
The bathroom is singular so you say, "it is"- está.
1. Where is the child(boy)? - ¿Dónde está el niño?
2. Where is the child(girl)? - ¿Dónde está la niña?
3, Where are the children?- ¿Dónde están los niños?
4. Where are the children? - ¿Dónde estan las niñas?

Here is are examples of how the singular changes to plural.
"El niño - the boy" changes to "los niños" and
"la niña" changes to "las niñas"
This singular to plural change happens for all nouns.
The articles "el" and "la" change with the nouns.
la silla -  las sillas -- chair /chairs
la muñeca - las muñecas -- doll/dolls or wrist/wrists
el cirujano - los cirujanos - surgeon/surgeons
el tobillo - los tobillos - ankle/ankles
Question: If the noun has an "el" article will the plural article
ever be "las"?
Answer: No, once you know the article is "la" then you know
the plural article is "las" and if you know the article is "el"
then you know the plural article is "los"
Also notice that when a noun ends in an "a" like "silla" or
"muñeca" the article is "la silla", "la muñeca" and when the
noun ends in"o" like "tobillo" or "cirujano"the article is "el"
BUT there are exceptions to that rule,
for ie. notice the ending of the noun 'programma" it ends in
an "a". The rule says to use the article "la", but "programma"
uses the article "el" and "radio" uses the "la" article "la radio".
The plural would be "los programmas" and "las radios".
Where does "está and están" come from?
"Está" and "están" are verb forms of the verb "estar - to be"
Conjugation for "estar - to be"
1st person :
yo estoy - I am
2nd person:
tú estás - you are
3rd person:
él está - he is
ella está - she is
usted está - you are(familiar.)
3rd person plural
nosotros estamos - we are
ellos están - they are (male, male and female)
ellas están - they are (only female)
ustedes están - you are (plural)(formal)
If you looked above at the conjugation of "estar" you
will see that in the 1st person, 2nd person and "we",
I did not highlight the pronouns in brown. It's because
you don't need to use the pronouns.
For ie.
"Estoy" is quicker to say then saying, "yo estoy".
The pronouns that are highlighted are highlighted
because "él, ella, and usted" share the verb form "está"
and "ellos, ellas, ustedes" share the verb form "están".
So, when you are speaking about he / her/ you or they use the
pronouns to differentiate between whom you are talking about.
Question:
Do you always need to use the pronouns with "él, ella and usted"?
Answer: No, because there are times when you are in conversations
that you are already on the subject of him/ her or they and you can
skip the prounoun and use only the third person verb form. That
takes practice, so in my opinion, in the beginning, use the prououns
and then eventually leave them behind.
 
Custom Search