Type of ser used

Question

There's this song I came across, it's in Spanish. It's called " El problema eres tu" and I don't understand why he uses the word eres when it should be es. I know that eres is used with the personal pronoun Tú, but in the title it is supposed to use es right(?) Because it's saying the problem is you..

Answer 1

Surprising as it might sound for English speakers, the subject of the sentence is "tú", even if it appears at the end of the sentence. Daniela's suggestion changing the word order immediately clears out the confusion.

However, "El problema es tú" is not wrong, but here the subject is "el problema", and "tú" is just a label for something that sounds like "you". This sentence would be equivalent to something like "El problema es el dinero". Pronouns like "tú" are preferred as subjects over most nouns, as jtaniel correctly noticed.

Gracias, Lazarus. - Daniela2041, Aug 25, 2017

Mil gracias. - jtaniel, Aug 25, 2017

Thank you so much, Laz. I know that El problema eres tú sounded right, but had no idea why. - Echoline, Aug 25, 2017

Answer 2

In a comment, Alice0925 says

Now to say, the problem is you literally, we would say
"el problema es tú" right?

I don't think so. I think this is a tricky grammar thing. But I am no grammarian.

I think you can say El gobierno es los ciudadanos or Los ciudadanos son el gobierno. The verb changes to agree with the subject.

But I think the situation is different with El problema eres tú. There, tú has to be the subject, because pronouns like tú cannot be used as predicate nominatives, or whatever those things are, like president in He is president. You can change the word order all you like, but tú has to be the subject, because grammatically it cannot be the... other thing. And so the verb, to agree with the subject, has to be eres.

El problema eres tú.
Tú eres el problema.
El problema es tú.
Tú es el problema.

I hope that someone with knowledge of grammar can explain better, for your sake and for mine.

Tú eres el problema. El problema eres tú. There may be another way around this. Hopefully Lazarus can give further light. - Daniela2041, Aug 25, 2017

Your reasoning seems perfect to me. "Tú" is a subject pronoun. There's your reason. - Daniela2041, Aug 25, 2017

Gracias, Dani. - jtaniel, Aug 25, 2017

Answer 3

As Daniela says if you change the word order it is clear.

Years ago Spain had a song in the Eurovision song contest called Eres Tu, which was a similar construction to what you have seen.

Mocedades Eres tu

Answer 4

With "ser" you can just reverse the sentence.

"Tú eres el problema." I don't know if it is a rule or not, but I always think of the verb "ser" in all its forms as an "equals" sign = .

That explains it! So then, the title "El problema eres tú" means 'you are the problem'. Now to say, the problem is you literally, we would say "el problema es tú" right? - Alice0925, Aug 25, 2017