ella
she
The feminine third-person pronoun meaning "she" or "her"
Encoding Strategies:
linguistic
mnemonic
repetition
él
he
+
-a
feminine suffix
Ella means she and is just él0 (he0) made feminine1 with -a1. It also helps that Ella is a girl's name in English — and in Spanish, it means "she."
ella
she
Used as the subject of a sentence to refer to a woman, girl, or female animal.
Ella trabaja en un hospitalShe works in a hospital
Ella llegó tarde a la reuniónShe arrived late to the meeting
her (after a preposition)
After a preposition, ella becomes "her" in English — just like él becomes "him."
El regalo es para ellaThe gift is for her
Fui al cine con ellaI went to the movies with her
it (feminine noun)
Since all Spanish nouns have gender, ella can also refer to a feminine noun (a thing or animal), where English would just say "it."
Esa es mi mochila. Dentro de ella hay un libroThat's my backpack. Inside it there's a book