by Angeles

Created on: January 16, 2007   Last Updated: May 12, 2007

Parts of the body in Spanish (English/Spanish)

Although these types of hints may seem not to be very important, I think it's quite useful to know, from the point of view of someone willing to improve the use of the Spanish language, that whenever we talk or refer to a part of the body (our body), in Spanish we don't need to use possessives. I'll give you some examples:

In English we say: "My hands are dirty".

In Spanish, we won't use the possessive "mis" ("my"), but the definite article "las". In fact, the order of words in the sentence changes a little bit:

"Tengo las manos sucias"

Literally: "I have the hands dirty". So, we'd never say in Spanish: "Mis manos estn sucias", it's not very common. Although anybody would understand its meaning, it wouldn't "sound" very Spanish.

Other examples to illustrate this concept:

- Me duele la cabeza. (I'm talking about my' headache, but I don't say: "Me duele mi cabeza")

- Usa las manos. (Use your hands)

- Ella tiene una flor en la mano. (She has a flower in her hand)

I hope this helps!

Learn more about this author, Angeles .
Click here to send this author comments or questions.