Breakdown of A mi hermana le dan náuseas cuando viaja en autobús, y a veces tiene que parar para no vomitar.
mi
my
a veces
sometimes
cuando
when
a
to
Questions & Answers about A mi hermana le dan náuseas cuando viaja en autobús, y a veces tiene que parar para no vomitar.
Why do we have both A mi hermana and le? Don’t they both mean to my sister?
Yes, they both point to the same person, but this is very normal in Spanish. It is called indirect object doubling.
- le is the indirect object pronoun and is usually the core grammatical marker.
- A mi hermana adds clarification or emphasis: it tells you exactly who le refers to.
So Spanish often says both: A mi hermana le dan náuseas...
In English, this feels redundant, but in Spanish it sounds natural.
Why does Spanish say le dan náuseas instead of something more literal like she feels nauseous?
Because Spanish often uses a different structure from English for physical or emotional reactions. Instead of making the person the grammatical subject, Spanish often makes the feeling or symptom the subject.
So:
- le = to her
- dan = give
- náuseas = nausea / feelings of sickness
Literally, it is something like nausea comes to her or nausea gives itself to her, but in natural English the idea is simply she feels sick / she gets nauseous.
This pattern is common in Spanish:
- Le da miedo = It scares her / She feels afraid
- Le da vergüenza = It embarrasses her
- Le dan náuseas = She feels nauseous
Why is it dan and not da?