La abuela del doctor vive lejos de la ciudad.

Questions & Answers about La abuela del doctor vive lejos de la ciudad.

Why is the sentence ordered as La abuela del doctor instead of using an apostrophe?
In Spanish, you cannot use an apostrophe to show possession. Instead, you use the structure 'the person or item' followed by 'of the owner'. So, 'the doctor's grandmother' is literally phrased as la abuela (the grandmother) de (of) el doctor (the doctor).
Where does the word del come from?
The word del is a mandatory contraction. Whenever the preposition de (of) is followed directly by the masculine word for 'the' (el), they must combine to form del. So, de plus el doctor becomes del doctor.
Why is de used twice in this sentence, and do they mean the same thing?
The word de is very flexible. In the first part (del doctor), it shows possession and translates to 'of' (the grandmother of the doctor). In the second part (lejos de), it is part of a phrase that translates to 'far from'.
Why does the sentence use la for la ciudad?
The word ciudad (city) is feminine, so it takes the feminine article la. A helpful trick for beginners is that Spanish nouns ending in -dad are almost always feminine!

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