El gato duerme en la silla.

The cat sleeps on the chair.

Breakdown of El gato duerme en la silla.

• la silla: the chair
• en: on
• el gato: the cat
• dormir: to sleep

Questions & Answers about El gato duerme en la silla.

Why do we use el gato instead of un gato?

El is a definite article, indicating we are talking about a specific cat that both the speaker and the listener presumably know about. If you said un gato, it would mean a cat in a more general sense, referring to an unspecified or random cat.

Why is it duerme and not está durmiendo?

Spanish typically uses the simple present tense (duerme) to talk about habits or general truths, including situations happening right now. Está durmiendo emphasizes that the cat is sleeping at this exact moment and might suggest ongoing action. Both are correct, but they convey slightly different aspects of the action.

Is there a difference between en la silla and sobre la silla?

Both can translate to on the chair, but en typically means in or on in a more general locational sense, while sobre more directly means on top of. In everyday Spanish, en la silla is quite common when talking about something that is resting on the surface of the chair.

Why is la silla used here instead of just silla?

Spanish requires articles (definite or indefinite) before nouns in most contexts, unlike English, which often omits them. Saying la silla specifies the chair, indicating a particular chair the speaker has in mind, rather than any chair.

How would you say "The cat sleeps on a chair" if it wasn't a specific chair?

You would use the indefinite article: El gato duerme en una silla. This tells us it’s just some chair, not one that is already identified in the conversation.