Breakdown of No tienes mucha paciencia con los niños.
el niño
the boy / the child
con
with / just by (+ -ing)
no
no / not
mucho
a lot
tener
to have
la paciencia
the patience
Questions & Answers about No tienes mucha paciencia con los niños.
Why do we use mucha in this sentence instead of muy or mucho?
Mucha means much or a lot of, and it is used to describe amounts of nouns (things or concepts). Because paciencia (patience) is a feminine singular noun, the quantifier changes to match its gender: mucha paciencia. We only use muy (very) to describe adjectives, such as if we said you are very patient (muy paciente).
How can I remember that paciencia is a feminine word?
The ending gives it away! Spanish words that end in -cia, like paciencia, farmacia, or diferencia, are almost always feminine. That is why we must use the feminine form mucha with it.
Why doesn't the sentence start with tú (you)?
In Spanish, you can usually drop the subject pronoun if it is obvious who is doing the action. The verb form tienes exclusively means you have (informal, singular), so the tú is already built into the word.
Does los niños mean the boys or the children here?
It translates to the children here. In Spanish, the masculine plural los niños is used to talk about a mixed group of boys and girls, or children in general. It only means the boys if you are specifically pointing out an all-boy group. To say the girls, you would use las niñas.
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