Learn Spanish (Latin America): Ese niño se parece a mi hermano.

Ese niño se parece a mi hermano.

That boy looks like my brother.

Breakdown of Ese niño se parece a mi hermano.

Questions & Answers about Ese niño se parece a mi hermano.

Why does this sentence use se parece instead of just parece?

Adding the pronoun se changes the lexical meaning of the verb. While parecer means 'to seem', the pronominal form parecerse means 'to look like' or 'to resemble'.

If I said Ese niño parece mi hermano without the se and a, what would it mean?

It would mean 'That boy seems to be my brother'—like you are guessing his identity. By using the pronominal phrase se parece a, you are specifically saying that the two of them share a physical or behavioral resemblance.

Why is there an a before mi hermano?

The verb parecerse always requires the preposition a to introduce the person or thing being resembled. Whenever you say someone looks like someone else, you will use the formula parecerse a.

I always mix up ese and eso. Why is it ese niño here?

Ese is the masculine singular adjective for 'that', used directly before a masculine noun like niño. Eso is a neuter pronoun used for abstract concepts or unidentified objects (like asking 'What is that?'), and it is never placed directly in front of a noun.