Learn Spanish (Spain): Ella tiene que cuidar a los niños enfermos. - She has to take care of the sick children.

In Spanish, when you want to say someone "has to" do something, you use the verb tener followed by que and an infinitive verb (a verb in its basic form). Here, tiene que cuidar means "has to take care of". If you just said ella tiene, it would simply mean "she has" (as in owning something).

Why is there an a before los niños?

This is known as the "personal a". In Spanish, when the object of an action is a person or a group of people (like los niños), you must put the word a right before them. It doesn't translate to anything in English, but the sentence would be grammatically incorrect without it.

Why is the word for sick (enfermos) placed after the children?

In Spanish, descriptive adjectives like enfermos (sick) almost always come after the noun they describe, which is the opposite of English. Notice that it also ends in -os to match the masculine, plural noun los niños.

Does cuidar mean "to take care of" all by itself?

Yes! The single Spanish verb cuidar translates to the entire English phrase "to take care of" or "to look after". You don't need to add any extra Spanish words to say "care" or "of".