Learn Spanish (Latin America): El niño está entre la mamá y el papá.

Unlike the complex prepositions in this lesson (such as al lado de or debajo de), entre (between) is a simple preposition. It connects directly to the nouns it refers to without needing de. You just use entre + [Item 1] + y + [Item 2].

In English we often just say "between mom and dad." Why does Spanish use la mamá and el papá?

Spanish is much stricter about using definite articles (el, la, los, las) than English. When you are talking about family members like mom and dad, you generally must include the article. You would only drop the article if you were talking directly to them (for example, saying "Hi, Mom!").

Why do we use está instead of es for "is" here?

We use está (from the verb estar) because it describes the physical location of the boy. A helpful rule from earlier lessons is that we always use estar to talk about where people, places, or things are located.

Does the accent mark on papá really matter?