Learn Spanish (Latin America): El tío de las niñas está en el parque.

El tío de las niñas está en el parque.

The girls' uncle is in the park.

Breakdown of El tío de las niñas está en el parque.

the (feminine plural)

Questions & Answers about El tío de las niñas está en el parque.

Why do we say El tío de las niñas instead of using an apostrophe like "las niñas' tío"?

Spanish doesn't use an apostrophe and an "s" to show possession. Instead, you swap the order and use de (of). So, "the girls' uncle" becomes El tío de las niñas, which literally translates to "the uncle of the girls".

Why is it El tío (singular) when there are multiple girls (las niñas)?

The word tío (uncle) is singular because there is only one uncle. In Spanish, the "owned" item (or person) controls whether you use a singular or plural word, not the owners. Since it's one uncle, we use the singular El tío, even though he belongs to multiple girls.

Why do we use está for "is" in this sentence instead of es?

We use está (from the verb estar) because the sentence is talking about a location. When you talk about where someone or something is located (like being in the park), you always use estar. If we were describing his personality, we would use a form of the verb ser (like es).

Can en el parque translate to "at the park" as well as "in the park"?

Yes! The Spanish word en is very flexible and can mean "in", "on", or "at" depending on the context. Translating it as "at the park" or "in the park" are both perfectly correct here.