zero article before profession (estudiante)

Richard A.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

zero article before profession (estudiante)

I encountered this in a video:

John es estudiante. Roger es UN estudiante también. 

Why does the article appear when también is added? Is this correct?  If so, what is the explanation?

(Google translate also adds the indefinite article when también is used.)

Asked 1 year ago
InmaKwiziq team member

Hola Richard

Both are correct, you can also omit it on the second sentence. Roger es estudiante también.

The presence of the article is justified with también because you are adding a bit more information to that second part, but to be honest, to me, it would sound a bit more natural to omit it in both sentences. 

There is no hard rule about when to add the article, it's a bit subjective. When there is a bit more specific information with added elements then the article tends to appear. 

In this very basic lesson we focused a bit more on when people introduce themselves to other people with more simple sentence, like, "Hola, me llamo Inma y soy profesora." - in this context then the use of the article would be really odd. 

Saludos

Saludos

zero article before profession (estudiante)

I encountered this in a video:

John es estudiante. Roger es UN estudiante también. 

Why does the article appear when también is added? Is this correct?  If so, what is the explanation?

(Google translate also adds the indefinite article when también is used.)

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