La herida es pequeña, pero la enfermera le puso una tirita.

Spanish uses definite articles much more often than English does. So la herida and la enfermera are completely natural, even where English might just say the wound and the nurse or sometimes leave the article out in a different context.

Both nouns are feminine singular:

• la herida = the wound
• la enfermera = the nurse

The article has to match the noun in gender and number.

Because pequeña has to agree with la herida, which is a feminine singular noun.

Agreement works like this:

• herida = feminine singular
• so the adjective must also be feminine singular: pequeña

Compare:

• el corte pequeño = the small cut
• la herida pequeña = the small wound

In Spanish, descriptive adjectives often come after the noun. So la herida pequeña would be the most basic word order, and here we get La herida es pequeña because the adjective comes after the verb es.

This is very normal:

• La casa es grande
• El libro es interesante
• La herida es pequeña

English usually puts adjectives before nouns, but Spanish often places them after the noun or after ser/estar.

Because pero means but, and here it links two complete ideas:

• La herida es pequeña
• la enfermera le puso una tirita

Just like in English, a comma before but is very common when joining two full clauses.

Le is an indirect object pronoun. Here it means something like to him / to her.

So:

• La enfermera le puso una tirita = The nurse put a plaster/bandage on him/her.

It does not refer to la herida. It refers to the person who has the wound.

Because the person is the indirect object, not the direct object.

In this sentence:

• una tirita is the thing being put on = direct object
• the person receiving it is the indirect object = le

So the structure is:

• poner algo a alguien = to put something on/for someone

Examples:

• Le puso una manta al niño = She put a blanket on the child.
• Le puso una tirita = She put a plaster on him/her.

If you replaced the noun with both pronouns, you would get:

• Se la puso = She put it on him/her.

Puso is the preterite form of poner, used for a completed action in the past.

• puso = she put / she placed
• ponía = she was putting / used to put
• ha puesto = she has put

Here, the action is seen as a single completed event: the nurse put on a plaster. That is why puso fits well.

Also, poner is irregular in the preterite:

• yo puse
• tú pusiste
• él/ella puso
• nosotros pusimos
• vosotros pusisteis
• ellos pusieron

In Spain, tirita usually means plaster in British English or Band-Aid / adhesive bandage in American English.

It is a very common everyday word in Spain.

The ending -ita is a diminutive, so historically it suggests something small, but in modern use tirita is simply the normal word for this item. Native speakers do not necessarily feel it strongly as little strip every time they say it.

No. Tirita is especially common in Spain.

In other Spanish-speaking countries, you may hear different words, such as:

• curita
• bandita
• apósito adhesivo

So if you are learning Spanish from Spain, tirita is exactly the right word to know.

Because tirita is a countable noun here, and Spanish normally uses an article with singular count nouns.

So:

• una tirita = a plaster / a bandage

Saying just tirita by itself would sound incomplete in this sentence.

It can do both, depending on how it is used.

As a noun:

• la herida = the wound

As an adjective:

• una persona herida = an injured/wounded person

In your sentence, herida is clearly a noun because it has the article la and is the subject of the sentence:

• La herida es pequeña = The wound is small.

Yes. La enfermera usually means the female nurse.

If the nurse were male, it would normally be:

• el enfermero

So Spanish marks gender in many job titles:

• el profesor / la profesora
• el médico / la médica
• el enfermero / la enfermera

Yes, but it would leave out the idea of to him/her.

Compare:

• La enfermera puso una tirita = The nurse put on a plaster / put down a plaster. This is less specific about who received it.
• La enfermera le puso una tirita = The nurse put a plaster on him/her.

So le makes the sentence more personal and clearer: someone received the plaster.

Yes, very normal. In Spanish, poner is often used where English might say put on, apply, or place.

So:

• poner una tirita
• poner crema
• poner una venda

All of these are natural ways to talk about applying something to the body.

The subject is la enfermera.

Spanish verbs change form depending on the subject, and puso means he/she put. Here, the noun right before it tells you who that she is:

• la enfermera le puso una tirita

So the structure is:

• subject: la enfermera
• indirect object: le
• verb: puso
• direct object: una tirita