Breakdown of La niña juega con su perro en el parque.
Questions & Answers about La niña juega con su perro en el parque.
In Spanish, every noun has a grammatical gender, masculine or feminine.
- Niña (girl) is a feminine noun.
- The definite article must match the noun in gender and number.
- Feminine singular: la
- Masculine singular: el
So you must say la niña (the girl) and el niño (the boy). Using el niña would be incorrect because el is masculine and niña is feminine.
All three can refer to a girl, but there are some nuances:
- Niña: literally “little girl,” often implies a child (roughly 0–11 years old).
- Chica: more general “girl,” often used for teenagers or young women, but can also mean any female person in casual speech.
- Muchacha: similar to chica; in some regions it can sound a bit more old‑fashioned or regional, and in some places it can also mean “maid/house helper,” so context matters.
In this sentence, la niña suggests a child, not a teenager or adult.
The letter ñ represents a different sound from n:
- n is like the n in no or nice.
- ñ is like the ny sound in canyon or onion.
So niña sounds roughly like NEE-nyah.
The squiggly mark on top (tilde) is part of the letter; ñ is its own letter in the Spanish alphabet.
Jugar is the infinitive form, “to play.”
Spanish verbs change form (are conjugated) depending on the subject:
- Yo juego – I play
- Tú juegas – You play (informal singular)
- Él/Ella juega – He/She plays
- Nosotros jugamos – We play
- etc.
The subject here is la niña (she), so you need the third‑person singular form: juega.
Also, jugar is a stem‑changing verb: the u changes to ue in most present‑tense forms (jugar → juega).
Spanish often uses the simple present tense for actions happening right now, where English normally uses the present continuous:
- La niña juega can mean:
- “The girl plays (in general / regularly),” or
- “The girl is playing (right now),” depending on context.
You can say La niña está jugando to emphasize that the action is happening at this moment, but in many everyday situations juega is enough and sounds more natural than repeating está jugando everywhere.
Spanish is a “pro‑drop” language: subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, ella, etc.) are usually omitted because the verb form already shows who is doing the action.
- Juega already tells us the subject is he/she/it or usted.
- The noun la niña makes it clear that the subject is “the girl.”
So La niña juega is complete and natural.
You could say Ella juega con su perro en el parque, but that means “She plays with her dog in the park” without specifying that she is a girl (you would already know who from context).
Su is a possessive adjective that is ambiguous in English. It can mean:
- his
- her
- its
- your (formal, singular or plural)
- their
So su perro can be “her dog,” “his dog,” “their dog,” etc.
The sentence La niña juega con su perro is normally understood as “The girl plays with her dog,” because la niña is the only logical owner in this context. But the word su itself does not specify the gender of the owner.
Su/sus agree with the number of the thing owned, not with the owner:
- su perro – his/her/their/your dog (one dog)
- sus perros – his/her/their/your dogs (more than one dog)
Here there is only one dog, so you use su (singular), not sus (plural).
Yes, perro is grammatically masculine and normally refers to a male dog. Perra is the feminine form and usually refers to a female dog.
However:
- If you don’t know the dog’s sex, many speakers default to perro in a general way.
- If you know it’s a female dog and want to be precise, you can say perra.
So these would both be possible:
- La niña juega con su perro – could be male dog, or generic if sex is unknown.
- La niña juega con su perra – clearly a female dog.
The preposition con means “with,” expressing accompaniment:
- jugar con alguien / algo – to play with someone / something.
The preposition a is used for direction (“to”), and also for a direct object when it’s a person or beloved pet (the personal a), but here perro is not the direct object of the verb. The structure is:
- juega – verb
- con – preposition
- su perro – object of the preposition
So con su perro is the correct combination after jugar in this meaning.
In Spanish, singular countable nouns almost always need an article (definite or indefinite), especially when they refer to a specific place or thing.
- en el parque – in the park (a specific park)
- en un parque – in a park (not specified)
Leaving the article out (en parque) is generally ungrammatical in this context.
The article el is used because parque is a masculine singular noun.
They express different ideas:
- en el parque = “in the park” (location)
- al parque = “to the park” (movement, direction)
Al is a contraction of a + el:
- Voy al parque – I’m going to the park.
- Juego en el parque – I play in the park.
In your sentence, the girl is already at the park, playing there, so en el parque is correct.
Yes. Spanish word order is more flexible than English. All of these are grammatical, with slight differences in emphasis:
- La niña juega con su perro en el parque. – neutral; standard SVO.
- En el parque, la niña juega con su perro. – emphasizes the location “in the park.”
- La niña, en el parque, juega con su perro. – more marked; might sound more literary or stylized depending on context.
The basic meaning remains the same: the girl plays with her dog in the park.
Yes, La niña juega con su perro en el parque is perfectly natural and fully understood in both Latin America and Spain.
Minor differences you might see in some regions:
- People might prefer chica or muchacha instead of niña, depending on age and local usage.
- A diminutive like perrito or parquecito might appear in casual speech, especially in some Latin American countries.
But as written, the sentence is standard and neutral across the Spanish‑speaking world.