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El niño abre la boca.

El niño abre la boca.
The boy opens his mouth.
From Lesson 49:Verbs like gustar (encantar, doler)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of El niño abre la boca.

el niño
the boy
abrir
to open
la boca
the mouth

Questions & Answers about El niño abre la boca.

Why does it say la boca instead of su boca (his mouth)?
In Spanish, you use definite articles (el, la, los, las) for body parts instead of possessive words like mi or su. Since we know the boy is doing the action, it is obvious to a Spanish speaker that he is opening his own mouth.
What is the infinitive (dictionary form) of abre?
The verb is abrir (to open). It is a regular -ir verb, so for el niño (he), you drop the -ir and add -e to get abre.
How does knowing to use la boca help with verbs like doler (to hurt) from this lesson?
Verbs like doler follow this exact same rule for body parts! If the boy's mouth hurt, you would say Le duele la boca (Literally: The mouth hurts to him). Just like in this sentence, you use the article la instead of the possessive su.

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