Breakdown of La prima del profesor necesita una mesa nueva.
de
from / of
el profesor
the teacher
una
a, an (feminine)
necesitar
to need
la mesa
the table
nuevo
new
la prima
the female cousin
Questions & Answers about La prima del profesor necesita una mesa nueva.
Why does the Spanish sentence use del to say 'the teacher's'?
In Spanish, there is no apostrophe 's' for possession. Instead, you describe the relationship by saying 'the cousin of the teacher' using the word de (of). When de is followed directly by the masculine word el (the), they combine into the contraction del.
How do we know from the sentence that the cousin is female, but the teacher is male?
Spanish uses masculine and feminine forms for people. La prima uses the feminine la and ends in -a, meaning she is a female cousin. The teacher is el profesor, which is masculine. If the teacher were female, it would be la profesora, and the sentence would say de la profesora instead of del profesor.
Why is it una mesa nueva instead of una nueva mesa?
Why does the verb end in -a (necesita)?
The verb is necesitar (to need). Because the person doing the needing is 'the cousin' (which counts as 'she'), you use the 'he/she/it' form of the verb. For regular verbs that end in -ar, you drop the -ar and add -a, making it necesita.
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