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La niña mira a su gato.

La niña mira a su gato.
The girl looks at her cat.
From Lesson 42:The personal a (veo a mi amiga)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about La niña mira a su gato.

Why is there an a before su gato?
In Spanish, when the direct object of a verb is a specific person or a beloved pet, we add the word a right before it. This is called the 'personal a'. Even though a cat is an animal, pets are treated like people in this rule.
Does the a mean 'at' like in 'looks at'?
No, it doesn't! The verb mirar already means 'to look at' or 'to watch' all by itself. The a here is strictly the 'personal a' for pets. If the girl were looking at a book, it would just be La niña mira su libro without the a.
How do we know su means 'her' here? Could it mean 'his'?
The word su can mean 'his', 'her', 'your' (formal), or 'their'. We know it means 'her' in this sentence because the subject of the sentence is the girl (la niña). Context tells us whose cat it is!
Does su need to match the feminine gender of la niña?
No, possessive words in Spanish only change based on the thing being owned, not the owner. Furthermore, su only changes for plural words (becoming sus); it does not have masculine or feminine forms. Since there is only one cat (gato), we simply use the singular su.

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