Enfría el té antes de dárselo a la niña, por favor.

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Breakdown of Enfría el té antes de dárselo a la niña, por favor.

• antes de: before
• por favor: please
• lo: it

Questions & Answers about Enfría el té antes de dárselo a la niña, por favor.

In Enfría el té, who is being addressed, and why is there no subject pronoun?

Enfría is the tú (informal singular) command form of enfriar (to cool). So the sentence is addressing “you” (informal), as in “(You) cool the tea…”.

Spanish usually drops subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, etc.) when the verb ending already makes the subject clear.
The -a ending in enfría (in an affirmative command) tells us it’s tú, so tú is normally not said:

• (Tú) enfría el té – You (informal) cool the tea.

If you wanted to be formal (usted), you’d say Enfríe el té instead.

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Why is it el té and not just té?

In Spanish, you almost always use an article (like el, la) with a noun, even when English might not.

Here, el té means “the tea,” and it’s natural because we’re talking about a specific tea (the tea that is going to be given to the girl).

• Enfría el té – Cool the tea (this particular tea).

Using just té without an article (Enfría té) sounds wrong or at best extremely unnatural in this context.

Also, té is masculine in Spanish, so it takes el: el té.

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What does antes de dárselo literally mean, and why is it ?