Mi hermana lee el periódico en la mañana.

In Spanish, when you use a possessive adjective like mi, tu, su, you do not add an article in front of it.

• Correct: mi hermana = my sister
• Incorrect: la mi hermana

The article la is used when there’s no possessive:

• la hermana = the sister
• mi hermana = my sister

So mi already tells you whose sister it is, and adding la would be redundant and ungrammatical.

Hermana is the feminine form of hermano.

• hermano = brother
• hermana = sister

Spanish nouns referring to people often change their ending for gender: -o for masculine, -a for feminine (with many exceptions, but this is a common pattern). Since the sentence means my sister, it correctly uses mi hermana.

Leer is the infinitive form: leer = to read.
For mi hermana (3rd person singular: she), you must conjugate it in the present tense:

• yo leo – I read
• tú lees – you read
• él / ella / usted lee – he / she / you (formal) read
• nosotros leemos – we read
• ellos / ellas / ustedes leen – they / you all read

Since mi hermana = she, the correct form is lee.

Spanish often omits subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, ella, etc.) because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

• Lee can only be él / ella / usted in the singular, so context tells you it’s mi hermana.

You could say:

• Ella lee el periódico en la mañana. = She reads the newspaper in the morning.

But you would not say Ella mi hermana lee…. That sounds like two subjects stuck together. You either say:

• Mi hermana lee…
  or
• Ella lee…, depending on what you want to emphasize.

Both are possible, but they mean slightly different things:

• lee el periódico = she reads the newspaper (a specific one, or “the newspaper” in general, like a regular habit with a certain paper)
• lee un periódico = she reads a newspaper (any newspaper, not a specific one; more indefinite)

Spanish often uses the definite article el / la where English might use no article or a more general sense. In context, el periódico can sound like a regular, habitual thing she does with the newspaper she usually reads.

Normally, no. In this sentence you need the article:

• Mi hermana lee el periódico. ✅
• Mi hermana lee periódico. ❌ (sounds wrong in standard Spanish)

Unlike English, Spanish usually needs an article (el, la, un, una, los, las, unos, unas) in front of a singular countable noun used as a direct object.

You might see lee periódicos (plural, no article) to talk about newspapers in general, but in singular you usually choose el periódico or un periódico.

Both can mean newspaper, but usage varies:

• el periódico – very common word for newspaper in Latin America.
• el diario – also means newspaper, but can have a more “formal” or “traditional” feel, depending on the region; it also can mean diary in other contexts.

In this sentence, el periódico is the most neutral and widely used option in Latin America.

In Spanish, nouns have grammatical gender, masculine or feminine, and the article must match:

• el periódico – masculine
• la mañana – feminine

There are some patterns (many -o nouns are masculine, many -a nouns are feminine), but there are many exceptions. You generally have to learn the noun together with its article:

• el periódico
• la mañana

Think of the gender as part of the word’s identity.

The accent mark in periódico shows where the stress falls: pe-ri-Ó-di-co (stress on Ó).

Without the accent, the word would be pronounced with stress on the second-to-last syllable (pe-RIO-di-co), which is not correct. The written accent tells you:

• which syllable to stress
• how to distinguish it from other possible forms spelled the same way

So you pronounce it pe-ri-Ó-di-co.

Both are possible in Latin American Spanish:

• en la mañana – very common in much of Latin America; literally in the morning
• por la mañana – also common; literally in the (early part of the) day / in the morning

In many regions, por la mañana is slightly more idiomatic for “in the mornings / in the morning (as a general time)”, but en la mañana is widely understood and natural in Latin America. The choice often comes down to regional preference and personal style.

Yes, mañana can mean:

• la mañana (with article, usually) = the morning
• mañana (often without article) = tomorrow

In this sentence, you have en la mañana. The presence of la strongly signals the meaning the morning.

If you wanted to say tomorrow, you would say something like:

• Mañana mi hermana lee el periódico. = Tomorrow my sister reads the newspaper.

No la there, so it means tomorrow.

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly:

• en la mañana – in the morning (can be a specific morning or a general time of day)
• en las mañanas – in the mornings / on (most) mornings (emphasizes a repeated, habitual action)

So:

• Mi hermana lee el periódico en la mañana. = She reads the newspaper in the morning.
• Mi hermana lee el periódico en las mañanas. = She reads the newspaper in the mornings (as a routine).

Spanish uses the simple present much more broadly than English.

• Mi hermana lee el periódico en la mañana.
  = My sister reads the newspaper in the morning. (habit, routine)

If you say:

• Mi hermana está leyendo el periódico.
  = My sister is reading the newspaper (right now).

So, for a general habit or routine, Spanish prefers lee, not está leyendo.

Yes, Spanish word order is more flexible than English, but not all orders sound equally natural.

Most neutral, natural version:

• Mi hermana lee el periódico en la mañana.

You can say:

• En la mañana, mi hermana lee el periódico. (emphasis on in the morning)

Mi hermana en la mañana lee el periódico is understandable, but sounds a bit marked or poetic; it’s less typical in everyday speech. For learners, stick to:

• Mi hermana lee el periódico en la mañana.
  or
• En la mañana, mi hermana lee el periódico.

Present tense of leer:

• yo leo – I read
• tú lees – you read (informal singular)
• él / ella / usted lee – he / she / you (formal) read
• nosotros / nosotras leemos – we read
• ellos / ellas / ustedes leen – they / you all read

In the sentence Mi hermana lee el periódico en la mañana, mi hermana corresponds to ella, so you use lee.