La carretera cerca del río tiene muchas curvas.

The highway near the river has many curves.

Breakdown of La carretera cerca del río tiene muchas curvas.

• tener: to have
• cerca de: near
• el río: the river
• la carretera: the highway

Questions & Answers about La carretera cerca del río tiene muchas curvas.

Why is it cerca del río and not cerca de el río or cerca el río?

In Spanish, to express “near something” you always use the preposition de after cerca. Since río is a masculine singular noun, de + el contracts to del. You cannot drop the de, and you must contract de el into del.

What does the contraction del mean?

Del is simply de + el.
• de means “of” or “from”
• el is the masculine singular definite article “the”
Put together, del means “of the” or “from the.”

Why is la used before carretera, and why does río also have an article?

• Carretera is a feminine noun, so it takes la (“the road”).
• Río is masculine, so it takes el. In the sentence it appears as del río because of the contraction de + el.
Spanish generally requires definite articles before countable, specific nouns.

Why is tiene used here instead of hay?