Breakdown of El niño tiene los ojos grandes y negros.
el niño
the boy / the child
y
and
grande
big
negro
black
tener
to have
el ojo
the eye
Questions & Answers about El niño tiene los ojos grandes y negros.
Why does the sentence use los ojos instead of just saying eyes?
When describing physical features like eyes or hair with the verb tener, Spanish requires the definite article (el, la, los, las). So instead of saying he has large eyes, Spanish literally says he has the eyes large and black.
Why do grandes and negros come after ojos?
In Spanish, adjectives that describe a noun usually come after the noun. Instead of putting the adjectives first like we do in English, the order is noun first (ojos), then the descriptive words (grandes y negros).
Ojos is a masculine noun. Why is it grandes instead of grandos?
Adjectives that end in -e in their singular form, like grande, do not change for gender. They are the same for both masculine and feminine nouns. To make it plural to match los ojos, you just add an -s. The second adjective, negros, does change for gender, which is why it takes the masculine plural -os ending.
Why is there a y (and) between the two adjectives?
In English, we can put adjectives right next to each other, like large black eyes. In Spanish, when two descriptive adjectives follow a noun, you cannot just put them side by side. You must separate them with y.
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