Breakdown of El gato camina de lado cuando escucha un ruido fuerte.
caminar
to walk
el gato
the cat
cuando
when
el ruido
the noise
fuerte
loud
escuchar
to hear
de lado
sideways
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Questions & Answers about El gato camina de lado cuando escucha un ruido fuerte.
Why do we say El gato instead of just Gato?
Spanish normally requires an article (or another determiner) before singular countable nouns in full sentences. El specifies “the cat” in context. Omitting it (“Gato camina…”) would sound like a newspaper headline or a title, not a natural sentence.
What tense and person is camina?
Camina is the present indicative, third person singular (él/ella). It matches el gato, so you know who is walking.
What does camina de lado mean literally?
Literally it means “walks sideways.” The phrase de lado combines the preposition de + noun lado to indicate direction or manner (“to the side”).
Why is the preposition de necessary in de lado?
In Spanish, many adverbial expressions of manner or direction are formed with de + noun, e.g. de frente (“forward”), de espaldas (“backwards”), de prisa (“in a hurry”). Without de, you lose that idiomatic structure.
Can I use a different expression instead of de lado?
Yes. A common synonym is de costado. You could say El gato camina de costado and it would mean the same thing.
Why do we use cuando here, and what role does it play?
Cuando is a temporal conjunction meaning “when.” It connects the main clause (El gato camina de lado) with the subordinate clause (cuando escucha un ruido fuerte) to explain when the cat walks sideways.
Why isn’t there a subject pronoun before escucha (like él escucha)?
Spanish usually omits subject pronouns because verb endings indicate the subject. Escucha already tells you it’s third person singular. You could add él for emphasis or clarity, but it’s not required.
What’s the function of the indefinite article un in un ruido fuerte?
Un signals that it’s any loud noise, not a specific one. If you said el ruido fuerte, you’d be referring to a particular noise the listener already knows about.
Why does fuerte come after ruido instead of before it?
Descriptive adjectives in Spanish typically follow the noun they modify. So ruido fuerte is the normal order (“loud noise”).
Does the adjective fuerte change with gender or number?
Adjectives ending in -e (like fuerte) are invariable for gender (same form for masculine and feminine). They only change for number: fuertes for plural. In our sentence it stays fuerte because ruido is masculine singular.