Question 1

Why do we use unos here instead of just saying ve pájaros bonitos?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish, when you want to say "some" or "a few," you use the plural indefinite articles unos (masculine) or unas (feminine). While in English you might skip the word "some" and just say "The boy sees pretty birds," Spanish often includes unos to sound more natural.

Question 2

Why is it unos and not los or unas?

Accepted Answer

Articles must match the noun they go with in both gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural). Since pájaros (birds) is a masculine plural noun, we use the masculine plural article unos (some). If we used los, it would mean "the" birds instead of "some" birds.

Question 3

Why does bonitos come after pájaros?

Accepted Answer

In English, we put the describing word first (pretty birds). In Spanish, adjectives almost always come after the noun they describe. Also, notice that bonitos ends in -os to match the masculine plural noun pájaros.

Question 4

What verb is ve and why does it end in an "e"?

Accepted Answer

Ve is the "he/she/it" form of the verb ver (to see). We use this form because the subject doing the seeing is El niño (The boy). If you were the one seeing the birds, it would be ves (you see).

Question 5

Why is there an accent mark on the first "a" in pájaros?

Accepted Answer

The accent mark tells you to put the spoken stress on that specific syllable: PÁ-ja-ros. Without it, Spanish pronunciation rules would normally stress the second-to-last syllable (pa-JA-ros).

El niño ve unos pájaros bonitos.

Breakdown of El niño ve unos pájaros bonitos.

Questions & Answers about El niño ve unos pájaros bonitos.

Learn El niño ve unos pájaros bonitos and more in Spanish