Learn Hardcore Chinese: Zuótiān tā gěi wǒ kàn le hěnduō gǒu hé māo de zhàopiàn. - Yesterday she showed me many photos of dogs and cats.

Both are natural and mean the same thing. Putting 昨天 right at the start is very common in spoken Chinese; it sets the time frame for what follows, almost like “As for yesterday, …” in English.

What exactly is 给 doing in 给我看? Does it still mean “to give”?

Here 给 (gěi) is functioning like “to” or “for” and helps form the pattern 给 + person + verb, which often means “do [verb] for (someone)” or “let (someone) [verb]”. In this sentence:

给我看 ≈ “let me see / show (me)”

So you can think of the structure as:

她给我看了 …
　= “She, for me / to me, saw (i.e., let me see) …”

It’s very common to express “to show someone something” as 给 + someone + 看 rather than using a separate verb like 展示.

Is 给我看了 one fixed phrase meaning “showed me”, or should I think of it as 给我 + 看了?

Grammatically, it is 给我 + 看了:

给我: marks the beneficiary/indirect object (“to me / for me”)
看了: the main verb “look at / see” with the aspect marker 了

However, in practice, 给 + 人 + 看 is such a common pattern that you can almost treat 给我看 as a single unit meaning “to show (me)”. Just remember that 看 is still the main verb; 给 is helping to link “me” to that action.

Why is 了 placed after 看? Could I put 了 at the end, like 昨天她给我看很多狗和猫的照片了? What’s the difference?

In 看了, 了 is a verb-aspect marker, showing that the action of “looking/showing” is completed.

看了: completed act of showing/looking.

You can also put a sentence-final 了 at the end in some contexts:

昨天她给我看了很多狗和猫的照片了。
(Correct in the right context, with a slight “new situation / change” flavor.)

Differences:

看了 … 照片。 → neutral statement of a completed event.
… 照片了。 (sentence-final 了) → often adds the feeling of a change / new situation, or emphasizing that this has now happened.

Your original sentence with 了 right after 看 is the most straightforward and textbook-like way to say it.

Does 了 here always mean “past tense”?

No. 了 is not a past-tense marker; it’s mainly an aspect marker (and sometimes a change-of-state marker at the end of a sentence). In this sentence it marks:

A completed action: the showing/seeing of the photos has been carried out.

The fact that we also have 昨天 (“yesterday”) is what clearly puts it in the past in terms of time. You can have 了 with non-past contexts too, as long as the action is viewed as completed in some way.

Why do we need 的 in 狗和猫的照片?

的 links a modifier to a noun. Here:

狗和猫 = “dogs and cats”
狗和猫的 = “dog-and-cat (type)” / “of dogs and cats”
狗和猫的照片 = “photos of dogs and cats”

So 的 is doing the same job as the English “of” (or sometimes “’s” / adjectival usage) in phrases like “dog photos”, “photos of dogs”. Without 的, 狗和猫照片 sounds incomplete and usually unnatural.

Does 狗和猫的照片 mean “photos of dogs and cats”, or “dogs’ and cats’ photos”? Is it ambiguous?

In most real-life contexts, 狗和猫的照片 will be understood as:

“photos of dogs and cats” (pictures whose content is dogs and cats).

Technically, X 的照片 can also mean “X’s photos” (photos that belong to X), but with animals like 狗 and 猫, context almost always suggests “what’s in the picture”, not ownership. If you specifically wanted “dogs’ photos” in the sense of photos that belong to dogs and cats, you would usually need extra context or wording, and it’s not a very natural idea to express.

Should there be a measure word after 很多? For example, should it be 很多只狗 or 很多张照片?

Chinese usually likes measure words, but there is some flexibility:

很多狗和猫的照片 (your sentence)
– Quite natural; 很多 directly modifies the noun phrase “dog-and-cat photos”.
很多张狗和猫的照片
– Emphasizes the number of photos (“many photos of dogs and cats”).
很多只狗和猫的照片
– Grammatically possible but odd: it sounds like you’re counting the animals specifically; most speakers would avoid this here.

In everyday speech, 很多狗和猫的照片 is fine. If you want to be very explicit that you are counting photos as items, 很多张狗和猫的照片 is the most typical “with-measure-word” version.

Why is there no word like English “of” before 狗和猫 in “pictures of dogs and cats”?

Chinese structures the phrase differently. In English:

pictures of dogs and cats
= [pictures] [of [dogs and cats]]

In Chinese:

狗和猫的照片
= [狗和猫] + 的
- [照片]
  = “[dogs and cats]’ photos” / “dog-and-cat photos”

So Chinese doesn’t use a separate preposition like “of”; instead, it uses 的 after the modifier phrase (狗和猫) to connect it to the noun (照片).

Could I say 她昨天给我看了很多狗和猫的照片 instead of 昨天她给我看了很多狗和猫的照片? Is there any difference?

Yes, you absolutely can say:

她昨天给我看了很多狗和猫的照片。

This is just as natural. The two main common orders are:

昨天她给我看了…
她昨天给我看了…

The meaning is the same. The difference is minor in nuance: putting 昨天 first slightly emphasizes the time frame; putting 她 first slightly emphasizes the subject. Both are very normal.

Could I use 看见 instead of 看, like 给我看见了很多狗和猫的照片?

No, 给我看见了很多狗和猫的照片 is not natural.

看 is the general verb “to look (at) / to see”.
看见 focuses on the moment of seeing / catching sight of something.

The pattern 给 + 人 + 看 means “show someone (something) / let someone see (something)”. You can’t simply substitute 看见 into that pattern.

So for “She showed me many pictures of dogs and cats”, stick with:

给我看了很多狗和猫的照片。

What is the difference between 和 and 跟 in 狗和猫? Could I say 狗跟猫 instead?

Yes, you can say:

狗和猫的照片
狗跟猫的照片

Here, 和 and 跟 both mean “and” when linking nouns. Differences:

和: slightly more neutral and common in writing.
跟: a bit more colloquial; very common in speech.

In this position (joining nouns in a list), they are interchangeable in meaning.

Could the subject 她 be omitted if it’s clear from context?

Yes. Mandarin often drops pronouns when they are obvious from context. For example, if you were already talking about “her”, you could say:

昨天给我看了很多狗和猫的照片。

Listeners will infer that 她 is the implied subject. However, in a standalone sentence or written example without prior context, including 她 is clearer for learners.