Use of Indefinite Articles to Express Possession

Question

Some Spanish lesson I was doing had a few sentences like the following and I would appreciate some assistance in helping me to better understand them:

"El padre no lee. La hija lee." The translation given is: "The father is not reading. His daughter is reading." The photo context is straightforward with a man and a girl in a room; she has a book and he does not.

I would like to know if the translation for those sentences is good and if that is a good/typical way to express this idea. What confuses me is the "his daughter" translation. My beginner brain would expect the sentence to be written "Su hija lee." rather than "La hija lee." To me, the whole thing looks like, "The father is not reading. The daughter is reading."

Further rambling: I was thinking maybe because "su" is not specific and the idea is broken into two sentences, that might have something to do with using "La hija" rather than "Su hija" in the second sentence.

Answer 1

You are correct. Technically, the "his" part is only implied. The translation should probably be more precise.

Another (roundabout) way of saying that it is "his" daughter would be: La hija de él lee. Spanish speakers sometimes explain to whom they are referring with the possessive pronoun su in this way.

This appears to be a very introductory Spanish lesson. Maybe the word "su" has not been introduced in that book before this lesson. Just a thought. Hope this helps!

It was an early lesson, but "su" had been introduced already. The sentences make sense, but I was just wondering what the normal/typical/best wasy to express this is. Thanks for answering. - Trieltor, Aug 3, 2013

Answer 2

Welcome to the forum. I am a little over my head with this one but, my observation is that in Spanish, the possessive expression is not used nearly as much as in English. If you were to say something about your hand, you would use "la mano", not "mi mano".

Thanks for the response. - Trieltor, Aug 3, 2013