Breakdown of El niño nunca le dice el secreto a su madre.
el niño
the boy
la madre
the mother
su
his/her/its/their/your (formal)
a
to
el secreto
the secret
le
to him / to her / to you (formal)
nunca
never
decir
to say, to tell
Questions & Answers about El niño nunca le dice el secreto a su madre.
Why do we have both le and a su madre in this sentence? Isn't that saying 'to her' twice?
It feels redundant to English speakers, but it is actually required in Spanish! le is the indirect object pronoun meaning 'to him' or 'to her', and a su madre clarifies exactly who that person is. With verbs of communication like decir (to tell), you must include the pronoun le even when you state exactly who is receiving the message.
Why does nunca come before le dice? Can I put it at the end of the sentence?
In Spanish, negative words like nunca (never) usually go right before the pronoun (le) and the verb (dice). You cannot separate the pronoun from the conjugated verb. You can put nunca later in the sentence, but only if you add the word no before the verb, like this: El niño no le dice el secreto a su madre nunca.
What verb does dice come from?
It comes from decir (to say / to tell). It is an 'e to i' stem-changing verb in the present tense, meaning the e in the stem changes to an i for the he/she/it forms. This is why it becomes dice.
The translation is 'tells', but could I use a form of hablar here instead?
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