Use of article vs. possessive pronoun?
"Abre los ojos" translates to "Open your eyes".
When do you use articles? And when do you use possessive pronoun adjectives?
I found this question on another site and I have wondered the same thing. I see it in use on my flashcard site in a lot of sentences and wondered why the translation was "your" instead of "the" as los above. The answers to this question were soooo complex I became totally lost so thought I would try it here.
7 Answers
Possessives are used in Spanish for things you own. Body parts and intimate possessions are seen as inseparable, so they are addressed with definite articles, and the possession is generally indicated with personal pronouns. "Lavo mis ojos" is fine if they are prosthetic eyes you bought in a shop; your own eyes are "los ojos".
"Levanto la mano" does not require any pronoun, because you are using the first person (yo), so it is obvious that you are raising your own hand. "Le levanto la mano" clarifies whose hand you are raising now. "Levanto mi mano" sounds as if you are using one of your hands to lift the other one. "Mi mano" does not sound like something naturally connected to you, but rather something you purchased.
¡Me has salvado la vida! You have saved my life!
The pronoun "me" clarifies who, and "la vida" is obviously something intimately connected to you.
Ese fue el mejor día de mi vida.
Without personal pronouns of any kind, one will wonder whose life you are talking about.
In general, possessive adjectives tend to have the same contrastive feel that subject pronouns have.
If it can be deduced at all by context whose body part you mean, then go with the article.
Abre los ojos...I mean who else's eyes are you going to open, right? To say, "Abre tus ojos" sounds like maybe you are concerned that the person might not open their own eyes...maybe they will Jim's eyes or Fred's eyes.
You could translate abre tus ojos as "Open your own eyes and not someone else's."
However, if you wish to complement the eyes of your novio or novia...then I reckon it'd be quite fine to use tus ojos.
[Dreamy voice] ¡Qué hermosos son tus ojos!
Along with this, addressing a group of people and asking them to, say, raise their hand to ask a question...
Si tienen dudas, levanten la mano.
Note that hand is singular...we only want them to lift one hand...had we said levanten las manos, it would sound like we wish them lift both hands. The verb levanten takes care of the fact that we are asking this of a group of people.
Now...I'm not too sure about other people's body parts...I would tend to think you'd use the possessive adjective then (but I could be wrong).
Let's say there are three people in a room. Jim, Bob, and Frank. Frank is lying dead or unconscious on the floor. Jim says to Bob, "Bob, pick up his hand and see if he has a pulse. We want to make sure he's still alive."
I would think that would translate something like "Bob, levanta su mano y ve si tiene pulso. Queremos verificar si aún está vivo."
In this case, Jim is asking Bob to lift Frank's hand...so, I'd go with su there, but, I'm not too sure.
We always use articles in place of personal pronouns when referring to parts of the body. Why, I don´t know. It just makes sense in Spanish, ie: "Me estoy peinando el pelo" (not mi pelo). "I am combing my hair."
I've always seen it when referring to body parts or things that definitely belong to you.
Me haces la vida imposible. You make my life difficult.
My understanding is that the article is used because it is less personal when speaking of body parts. It seems that the reason for this is cultural rather than gramatical.
I've always seen it when referring to body parts or things that definitely belong to you. Me haces la vida imposible. You make my life difficult. The Silenthero
There were 2 sentences on my flashcard site and one did demonstrate the above use but the other did not so now I am confused. See below for both examples:
¡Me has salvado la vida! You have saved my life!
Ese fue el mejor día de mi vida.
That was the best day of my life.
Does this mean you can do either or did someone put in the wrong usage?
