Learn Spanish (Latin America): Los niños leen los papeles.

Los niños leen los papeles.

The boys read the papers.

Breakdown of Los niños leen los papeles.

the (masculine plural)

el papel

the paper

Questions & Answers about Los niños leen los papeles.

Why is the plural of papel spelled papeles instead of just adding an "s"?

The singular word for paper is papel. Because it ends in a consonant (the letter l), Spanish rules require us to add -es to make it plural. Adding just an -s to a consonant would make the word hard to pronounce!

How does the plural rule work for niños?

The singular noun is niño. Since it ends in a vowel (the letter o), the rule is much simpler than it is for consonants: we just add an -s to the end to get niños.

Could los niños also translate to "the children"?

Yes! In Spanish, any mixed group of boys and girls is referred to using the masculine plural. Depending on the real-world context, los niños can mean a group of only boys, or a mixed group of children.

Why does the verb leen have two "e"s in a row?

The base form of the verb "to read" is leer. To match it with "they" (referring to los niños), we take off the -er ending and add -en. Since the root of the word is just le-, adding -en gives us leen.