Breakdown of Ella tiene la cabeza pequeña.
ella
she / her (after a preposition)
pequeño
small
tener
to have
la cabeza
the head
Questions & Answers about Ella tiene la cabeza pequeña.
Why does the Spanish sentence use la cabeza (the head) instead of una cabeza (a head)?
When talking about body parts, Spanish prefers to use the definite article (el, la, los, las) rather than words like 'a' or 'her'. So, instead of saying 'a small head', Spanish literally says 'the head small'.
Why does pequeña come after cabeza?
In Spanish, descriptive words (adjectives) almost always come after the noun they are describing. You say la cabeza pequeña (the head small) rather than the English order of 'the small head'.
Why is the word for small spelled as pequeña instead of pequeño?
Adjectives in Spanish must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because cabeza is a feminine noun, the describing word pequeño changes to its feminine form, pequeña.
Could I just say Tiene la cabeza pequeña without Ella?
Yes! In Spanish, you can often leave out subject pronouns like ella (she) because the verb form tiene (has) already shows who is doing the action. You only need ella if you want to emphasize 'she' or to avoid confusion with 'he' (él) which also uses tiene.