Word
A los niños les interesan mucho los animales.
Meaning
The children are very interested in animals.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of A los niños les interesan mucho los animales.
el niño
the boy / the child
el animal
the animal
mucho
a lot
a
to
Questions & Answers about A los niños les interesan mucho los animales.
Why is the verb interesan plural when the children are the ones interested?
In Spanish, verbs like interesar work just like gustar. The things causing the interest (los animales) are actually the grammatical subject of the sentence. Because los animales is plural, the verb must be the plural interesan. Literally, the sentence is structured like 'Animals are very interesting to the children.'
Why do we need A at the very beginning of the sentence?
The A introduces the people who are feeling the interest (los niños). Because los niños is the indirect object (the ones receiving the feeling), Spanish requires this preposition. It clarifies exactly who the pronoun les refers to.
Why use les if we already said A los niños?
Spanish frequently uses double objects with verbs that express feelings, like interesar and gustar. Even though A los niños explicitly tells us who is interested, Spanish grammar still requires the indirect object pronoun les (meaning 'to them') right before the verb.
Why is it mucho and not muchos since animales is plural?