Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): A mi prima le encanta el baloncesto, pero la cancha de su escuela es muy pequeña. - My cousin loves basketball, but the court at her school is very small.

(A + person) + indirect object pronoun + encantar + thing liked
→ A mi prima le encanta el baloncesto.
Literally: Basketball is enchanting *to my cousin.*

So:

You can’t say “Mi prima encanta el baloncesto”. That sounds wrong to a native speaker.
You must say something like “A mi prima le encanta el baloncesto” or simply “Le encanta el baloncesto” if it’s clear who le refers to from context.

What does “le” stand for in “A mi prima le encanta”, and why is it le and not la?

In “A mi prima le encanta el baloncesto”:

le is an indirect object pronoun meaning “to her” (here: to my cousin).
The thing doing the “enchanting” is el baloncesto, so el baloncesto is actually the subject of the verb encantar.

Pattern:

Encantar algo a alguien → To delight someone, literally to enchant something to someone.

So:

le = to her / to him / to them (singular or formal you).
la would be a direct object (as in I see her = la veo), which is not the role here.

That’s why it’s le encanta, not la encanta.

Why is there an “a” before “mi prima”: “A mi prima le encanta …”?

The “a” appears because:

Encantar behaves like gustar and takes an indirect object introduced by a:
- A mi prima le encanta el baloncesto.
- A Juan le gusta el fútbol.
Also, in general Spanish uses “a” before specific people in object position (the “personal a”), and with verbs like gustar/encantar it’s required to mark who receives the feeling.

So “a mi prima” is the person to whom basketball is so pleasing.

Could I just say “Mi prima le encanta el baloncesto”?

No, that’s not correct.

You have two good options:

A mi prima le encanta el baloncesto.
A ella le encanta el baloncesto. (if you’ve already mentioned her)

You must either:

Use “a mi prima” (or a ella) with le, or
Drop the noun and just use le, if it’s clear who you’re talking about:

(Talking about your cousin already)
Le encanta el baloncesto.

But “Mi prima le encanta…” mixes patterns and sounds wrong.

Why is it “encanta” and not “encantan” here?

The verb agrees with the thing liked, not with the person:

Le encanta el baloncesto.
- Subject: el baloncesto (singular) → encanta (singular)

If there were several things:

A mi prima le encantan el baloncesto y el voleibol.
- Subject: el baloncesto y el voleibol (plural) → encantan

So “el baloncesto” is singular, so you must use encanta.

Why do we say “el baloncesto” with “el”? Can I drop the article?

With sports and general activities, Spanish often uses the definite article:

Me gusta el baloncesto.
Juegan al fútbol.
Vemos el tenis en la tele.

You can sometimes see “Me gusta baloncesto”, but it sounds less natural or a bit incomplete to many speakers, especially in general statements.

So:

“Le encanta el baloncesto” is the most natural, standard form.
Dropping el would not be typical in this context.

In Latin America, do people really say “baloncesto”, or do they use another word?

“Baloncesto” is perfectly correct and understood everywhere, but in much of Latin America people more commonly say:

básquet
básquetbol / básquetbol
sometimes basquet (without accents in informal writing)

So you might hear:

A mi prima le encanta el básquet.
A mi prima le encanta el básquetbol.

Your sentence with baloncesto is still fine and correct in Latin America; it just sounds a bit more “neutral” or slightly more Peninsular (Spain) in everyday speech depending on the country.

What exactly does “cancha” mean, and can I use “campo” instead?

Cancha in Latin America usually means:

court (for basketball, tennis, volleyball, etc.)
Also field / pitch in many places (e.g. soccer) — usage varies by country.

In Spain, people more often say:

pista de baloncesto (basketball court)
campo de fútbol (soccer field)

For your sentence about basketball at school in a Latin American context:

la cancha de su escuela = the (basketball) court at her school

You wouldn’t normally say “campo de baloncesto”; that sounds odd. Use cancha (LatAm) or pista (Spain) for basketball.

Why is it “la cancha de su escuela” and not “la cancha en su escuela”?

Both are possible, but they emphasize slightly different things:

la cancha de su escuela
- Literally: the court *of her school*
- Emphasizes that the court belongs to the school; it’s the school’s court.
la cancha en su escuela
- Literally: the court *in her school*
- Emphasizes location (where it is), not ownership.

In context, “la cancha de su escuela” sounds more natural when talking about school facilities.

Why does the adjective come after the noun: “cancha … muy pequeña” and not “muy pequeña cancha”?

In Spanish, adjectives usually go after the noun:

una cancha pequeña = a small court
una casa grande = a big house

So:

la cancha de su escuela es muy pequeña
→ the court of her school is very small

“muy pequeña cancha” is possible in certain stylistic or poetic contexts, but in normal speech, noun + adjective is the default order.

Why is it “pequeña” and not “pequeño”?

Adjectives in Spanish must agree with the gender and number of the noun:

cancha is feminine singular → la cancha
So the adjective must also be feminine singular → pequeña

Examples:

la cancha pequeña (feminine singular)
las canchas pequeñas (feminine plural)
el campo pequeño (masculine singular)
los campos pequeños (masculine plural)

So “pequeña” matches “cancha” in gender and number.

Why is it “mi prima” and what’s the gender difference between “prima” and “primo”?

Spanish nouns for family members usually show gender:

prima = female cousin
primo = male cousin

So:

mi prima = my (female) cousin
mi primo = my (male) cousin

If your cousin is a girl, “mi prima” is correct.

Could I say “A mi prima el baloncesto le encanta”? Is that wrong?

It’s grammatically correct, but the most natural order is:

A mi prima le encanta el baloncesto.

You can reorder elements to add emphasis:

El baloncesto le encanta a mi prima. (emphasizes “basketball”)
A mi prima el baloncesto le encanta. (emphasizes how much she loves basketball; sounds more marked or expressive)

So your version is not wrong; it just has a more emphatic or less neutral word order.

How do I make it clear that “su escuela” means “her school” and not “his” or “their”?

su is ambiguous in Spanish; it can mean:

his
her
its
their
your (formal)

If you need to be very clear that it means “her school”, you can rephrase:

la escuela de ella = her school
la cancha de la escuela de ella = the court of her school

So you could say:

A mi prima le encanta el baloncesto, pero la cancha de la escuela de ella es muy pequeña.

In most real conversations, though, context already makes it clear that su = her.