La madre me pidió que no despertara a la pequeña mientras dormía en la cuna.

Because pedir que normally triggers the subjunctive when one person asks another person to do something.

Here, la madre me pidió que... means the mother requested something of me, so the verb in the que clause goes into the subjunctive:

• me pidió que no despertara...

Spanish uses the subjunctive here because it is not stating a fact; it is expressing a request, wish, or instruction.

Because the main verb pidió is in the past, Spanish normally uses a past subjunctive in the subordinate clause.

This is a very common sequence:

• present main verb → present subjunctive
  Me pide que no despierte a la pequeña.
• past main verb → imperfect subjunctive
  Me pidió que no despertara a la pequeña.

So despertara is the expected form after pidió que.

It is not despertó because that would be an indicative past tense, and after pedir que you need the subjunctive.

Yes. Despertara and despertase are both valid imperfect subjunctive forms.

So these are both correct:

• me pidió que no despertara a la pequeña
• me pidió que no despertase a la pequeña

In modern everyday Spanish, especially in speech, -ra forms are much more common than -se forms.

Because mientras dormía en la cuna is describing the background situation, not the content of the request in the same way.

The mother’s request was not to wake the little girl, and dormía simply tells you what was happening at that time: she was sleeping in the cot.

So dormía is in the imperfect indicative because it presents the sleep as an ongoing real situation in the past.

Compare the roles:

• pidió que no despertara = requested action → subjunctive
• mientras dormía = background description → indicative

This is a classic Spanish past-tense contrast:

• pidió = a completed event
  The mother asked/requested once.
• dormía = an ongoing background action
  The little girl was sleeping at that time.

So the sentence combines:

• a finished action in the foreground: pidió
• a continuing background situation: dormía

That is very natural in Spanish storytelling.

The most natural interpretation is that dormía refers to la pequeña.

So the understood idea is:

• the mother asked me not to wake the little girl
• while the little girl was sleeping in the cot

Grammatically, Spanish sometimes leaves a subject unspoken if it is clear from context. Here, context strongly suggests la pequeña is the one sleeping.

Strictly speaking, without more context, a sentence like this could sometimes feel a little ambiguous, but most readers will understand la pequeña dormía.

That is the personal a.

In Spanish, when the direct object is a specific person, or sometimes a person-like or clearly animate being, you usually use a before it.

So:

• despertar a la pequeña
• ver a María
• llamar al médico

Even though la pequeña is the direct object of despertar, Spanish still uses a because it refers to a specific child.

La pequeña literally means the little one, and it is very commonly used to refer to a young girl or child.

It can sound:

• affectionate
• natural in family contexts
• slightly more personal than la niña

So la pequeña is not just a description here; it is functioning like a noun meaning the little girl / the little one.

Spanish does this a lot with adjectives used as nouns:

• el pequeño = the little boy / little one
• la mayor = the older girl / older one
• el joven = the young man

Because pedir means to ask for, to request, or to ask someone to do something, while preguntar means to ask a question.

Here the mother is making a request, not asking for information.

So:

• me pidió que no despertara... = she asked/requested that I not wake...
• me preguntó... would mean she asked me something, expecting an answer

This is a very important distinction for English speakers, because English uses ask for both ideas, but Spanish usually separates them:

• preguntar = ask a question
• pedir = ask for / request

Yes. Once the child is already clear from context, Spanish could use the direct object pronoun:

• La madre me pidió que no la despertara mientras dormía en la cuna.

That is completely natural.

The original version repeats a la pequeña instead of using la probably because it is clearer and slightly more explicit. Spanish often keeps the full noun phrase when introducing or maintaining clarity about who the object is.

Not always. Mientras means while, and the tense depends on how the speaker sees the action.

Here, dormía is imperfect because sleeping is presented as an ongoing background action.

But mientras can also appear with other tenses. For example:

• Mientras dormía, sonó el teléfono.
  Ongoing background sleep + one completed event
• Mientras durmió, nadie lo molestó.
  Less common in this kind of context, but possible if the whole period is viewed as a complete block

So mientras does not automatically require the imperfect, but the imperfect is very common when describing something in progress.

Because la madre simply means the mother, and the sentence is treating her as a known person in the context.

Spanish often uses the definite article when the identity is already understood from the situation or the surrounding text.

So this sentence does not necessarily mean my mother or her mother unless context tells you that. It just refers to the mother in the story.

If Spanish wanted to specify whose mother, it could say:

• mi madre
• su madre
• la madre de la niña

But the original leaves that unspecified.

Yes, if the speaker wants to make it explicit that it was her cot.

• mientras dormía en la cuna = while she was sleeping in the cot
• mientras dormía en su cuna = while she was sleeping in her cot

Spanish often leaves out possessives when the meaning is obvious from context, especially when the relationship is clear. So en la cuna sounds perfectly natural here.