Breakdown of Mis amigos me dan ánimo cada día.
el día
the day
el amigo
the friend
cada
each, every
me
me
mis
my
dar
to give
el ánimo
the encouragement
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Questions & Answers about Mis amigos me dan ánimo cada día.
What role does me play in Mis amigos me dan ánimo cada día?
Me is an indirect object pronoun. It tells you who is receiving the action. Here it means “to me.” Literally the phrase is “My friends give encouragement to me every day.”
Why is ánimo singular instead of plural?
Ánimo in the expression dar ánimo is an uncountable (mass) noun meaning “encouragement” or “morale.” We don’t say “ánimos” when talking about the general act of encouraging someone.
What exactly does dar ánimo mean?
Literally dar ánimo means “to give spirit” or “to give courage,” but idiomatically it’s “to encourage” or “to cheer up.” So Mis amigos me dan ánimo cada día = “My friends encourage me every day.”
Why is there an accent on the á in ánimo?
Spanish words like ánimo are llana/“paroxytone” (stress on the second-to-last syllable) and end in a vowel. According to Spanish accent rules, you need a written accent to mark that stress: Á-ni-mo.
Could I say Mis amigos dan ánimo a mí cada día instead?
Yes, that’s also correct. You’re making the indirect object explicit with a mí. It’s slightly more emphatic. In everyday speech most people drop a mí because the pronoun me already shows who you’re talking about.
Why is cada día singular? Can’t it be cada días?
With cada (each/every) the following noun is always singular. You say cada día (“each day/every day”), never cada días.
What’s the difference between cada día and todos los días?
Both mean “every day.”
- cada día emphasizes one day at a time (“each day”).
- todos los días literally “all the days” is slightly more general but they’re interchangeable in practice.
Why use the simple present (dan) instead of the present continuous?
Spanish uses the simple present for habitual actions: “they encourage me every day.” You could say están dándome ánimo cada día to stress “right now/these days they’re continually encouraging me,” but the simple present is more natural for routines.
Can I replace dar ánimo with a single verb?
Yes. Animar is the verb form. You could say Mis amigos me animan cada día and it means exactly the same: “My friends encourage me every day.”