Learn Spanish (Spain): ¡Busca el gato debajo del cojín!

¡Busca el gato debajo del cojín!

Look for the cat under the cushion!

Breakdown of ¡Busca el gato debajo del cojín!

el gato

the cat

del

of the / from the / about the (topic)

Questions & Answers about ¡Busca el gato debajo del cojín!

Why is it del cojín instead of de el cojín?

The phrase for "under" is debajo de. Whenever the word de is followed directly by the masculine word for "the" (el), they must combine into the single word del. Since cushion (cojín) is masculine, debajo de el becomes debajo del.

Why does the sentence start with Busca instead of Buscas?

Busca is an affirmative command. When you are telling someone to do something informally (using the tú form), you use the same form as the he/she/it present tense, which drops the final -s from the normal "you" form (tú buscas).

Doesn't the verb buscar need an extra word for "for"?

No, the Spanish verb buscar means "to look for" all by itself. You never need to add an extra word like por or para after it.

Shouldn't it be Busca al gato with the personal a?

You will often hear al gato if the cat is a beloved family pet! The personal a is used for people and sometimes for specific animals you have an emotional connection to. Using just el gato here is also perfectly correct and just treats the cat as a standard noun.