Breakdown of Le di esta pera dulce al niño.
el niño
the boy / the child
al
to the (m)
le
to him / to her / to you (formal) / him (direct object, male person)
dulce
sweet
este
this (m.sg., also esta, estos, estas, esto)
dar
to give
la pera
the pear
Questions & Answers about Le di esta pera dulce al niño.
Why is le at the beginning of the sentence if we already say al niño at the end?
In Spanish, it is usually required to use the indirect object pronoun (le) even when you state exactly who receives the action later in the sentence (al niño). It translates literally to something like "To him I gave this sweet pear to the boy." It feels redundant to English speakers, but it is just a normal rule in Spanish grammar!
Why is there no accent mark on di? Past tense words for "I" usually have one, like comí.
Di is the "I" form of the irregular verb dar (to give) in the simple past tense. Because it is a short, one-syllable word and there is no other identically spelled word to confuse it with, Spanish spelling rules say it does not need a written accent mark.
Why use esta here instead of este or esto?
The word for "this" must match the gender of the noun it points to. Because pera (pear) is feminine, we use the feminine form esta. Este is used for masculine nouns, and esto is only used when the object is an unknown thing or an abstract idea. Notice that esta has no accent mark, which helps distinguish it from está (is).
Why do we use al before niño instead of just a?
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