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Spanish Word of the Day Archive
Monday February 5, 2007
espalda, noun:
back
La espalda is used to refer to people’s backs.
¿Me pones un poco de crema en la espalda?
Can you put some suntan cream on my back?
Me duele la espalda.
I’ve got backache.
When we’re talking about parts of the body in English we tend to use words like ‘my’, ‘your’, ‘his’. But in Spanish these words are usually used with the definite article, in this case la/las.
It’s very often used in the phrase de espaldas:
Estaba tumbada de espaldas en la arena.
She was lying on her back in the sand.
Estaba de espaldas a mí.
She had her back to me.
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