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Los ojos del niño están cerrados.

Los ojos del niño están cerrados.
The boy's eyes are closed.
From Lesson 64:The Human Body: Head and Arms·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Los ojos del niño están cerrados.

Why is it Los ojos del niño instead of El niño's ojos?
Spanish does not use an apostrophe 's' to show ownership. Instead, you have to flip the phrase and use de (of). The sentence literally translates to 'The eyes of the boy'.
Where does the word del come from in this sentence?
del is a mandatory contraction. When the preposition de (of) is immediately followed by the masculine singular article el (the), they squish together into del. So, de + el niño becomes del niño.
Why do we use están instead of son for the word 'are'?
We use a form of the verb estar (están) because being closed is a physical condition or state. Since eyes can open and close, it is not a permanent characteristic, so we do not use the verb ser.
Why does cerrados end in '-os'?
In Spanish, adjectives must match the noun they describe in both gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural). Because ojos (eyes) is a masculine plural noun, the word cerrado (closed) must change to its masculine plural form, cerrados.

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