Word
Cuando el chico ve sangre, se desmaya.
Meaning
When the boy sees blood, he faints.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Cuando el chico ve sangre, se desmaya.
ver
to see / to look / appear
el chico
the boy (older / teenager)
cuando
when (statement)
la sangre
the blood
Questions & Answers about Cuando el chico ve sangre, se desmaya.
Why do both verbs (ve and se desmaya) use the present tense here?
Because this sentence describes a habit or a general fact. When you use cuando (when) to talk about something that happens regularly, like "Whenever the boy sees blood, he faints", you use the normal present tense for both actions.
Why is there a se before desmaya?
The Spanish verb for "to faint" is desmayarse. It is a pronominal verb, meaning it always requires a reflexive pronoun like se, me, or te. Even though we don't say he "faints himself" in English, Spanish requires the se to show that this sudden physical change is happening to his own body.
Why doesn't sangre have the word la in front of it?
Just like in English, you don't need the definite article when talking about an unspecified amount of something uncountable. He sees "blood" in general (ve sangre), not a specific puddle of blood (ve la sangre).