possessive articles

Question

In the word for today, "azúcar," one of the example sentences is: Mi padre tiene que controlarse su nivel de azúcar en la sangre. When I translate this it seems to be: My father has to monitor his level of sugar in the blood. However, to convey the same point in English, I would say: My father has to monitor the level of sugar in his blood.
Is there a rule in Spanish for using a possessive article for level and not for sangre?

Answer 1

Is there a rule in Spanish for using a possessive article for "level" and not for "sangre"?

Great question!

I noticed that in Spanish body parts, clothing, etc. are frequently preceded by the definite article instead of possessive adjectives:

Tengo que quitarme la camisa. (I have to take off my shirt)

Me duele la cabeza. (My head hurts)

So, I wonder, too, why is it not:

Mi padre tiene que controlarse el nivel de azúcar en la sangre.

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

Answer 2

Mi padre tiene que controlarse su nivel de azúcar en la sangre

This sentence sounds wrong to me. I'd have said "el nivel de azúcar". You don't normally use possessives ("su") when you are determining possession through pronouns ("controlarSE").

But ignoring the grammar, the sentence sounds very weird.

Gracias! - --Mariana--, Sep 5, 2010

Answer 3

delete-2nd thoughts.

Your grammar terminology is a little off:

either definite articles (el, la, los, las) or possessive adjectives (mi, su).

the sentence sounds very weird.

My father has to monitor his level of sugar in the blood.

This English sentence sounds awkward to me. I would say:

My father has to monitor his blood sugar level. (level of sugar in the blood sounds too verbose).