El perro de mi tía es gordo.

Breakdown of El perro de mi tía es gordo.

de
from / of
el perro
the dog
la tía
the aunt
mi
my
gordo
fat

Questions & Answers about El perro de mi tía es gordo.

Why does the sentence use de mi tía instead of an apostrophe "s" like "mi tía's perro"?
Spanish doesn't have an apostrophe "s" to show possession. Instead, you have to use the word de (of) and flip the word order. To say "my aunt's dog," you literally say "the dog of my aunt" (el perro de mi tía).
Why do we use es instead of está here? Isn't weight something that can change?
Even though weight can fluctuate, Spanish generally treats physical traits like being fat, thin, tall, or short as basic, defining characteristics of a person or animal. For core descriptions like this, you use the verb ser (in this case, es).
Does gordo end in "-o" because of the dog or because of the aunt?
It ends in "-o" because it describes the dog (el perro), which is a masculine noun. Adjectives always match the gender of the thing they are describing, not the person who owns it. If your aunt had a female pet, like a turtle (la tortuga), it would be gorda.
Since we are learning comparatives, how would I change this sentence to say "My aunt's dog is fatter than my dog"?
You would use the formula más + adjective + que. To say "fatter than my dog," you literally say "more fat than my dog" in Spanish: El perro de mi tía es más gordo que mi perro.

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