El perro mueve la cola en el parque.

The dog moves its tail in the park.

Breakdown of El perro mueve la cola en el parque.

• en: in
• el perro: the dog
• el parque: the park
• mover: to move
• la cola: the tail

Questions & Answers about El perro mueve la cola en el parque.

Why do we use la cola instead of su cola?

In Spanish, it’s very common to use the definite article la for body parts instead of su. So you’ll often see el perro mueve la cola (the dog wags its tail) rather than el perro mueve su cola. Using su wouldn’t be wrong, but it’s more natural and common to say la cola for body parts.

Why is it mueve and not something like mover or moviendo?

Mueve is the third-person singular present tense form of the verb mover (to move). You use it here with el perro (the dog) as the subject. If you used moviendo, that would be the gerund (moving), which generally appears with a form of estar (like está moviendo). And mover without a change would be the infinitive (to move) rather than a conjugated verb.

Is there a difference between mover and moverse?

Yes. Mover is a transitive verb, meaning it acts on something: mueve la cola (he/she moves the tail). Moverse is reflexive or intransitive, meaning the subject moves itself: el perro se mueve (the dog moves). In our example, the dog is moving its tail, not simply moving itself, so mover with a direct object (la cola) is correct.

Why do we say en el parque instead of al parque?

En el parque indicates the location where the action happens—in this case, the dog wagging its tail. If you said al parque, it would suggest movement towards the park (for example, va al parque, he goes to the park). Since the sentence is describing an action happening inside the park, en el parque is the right preposition.

Why do we use EL perro instead of just Perro?

In Spanish, nouns almost always need an article (like el, la, un, una) unless there’s a particular grammatical reason to omit it. For a specific dog, you’d typically say el perro. Leaving out the article entirely is very unusual and tends to appear only in certain contexts (e.g., titles, lists, or specific grammatical constructions).