Я завернул подарок в бумагу.

I

Breakdown of Я завернул подарок в бумагу.

• в: in
• подарок: the gift
• бумага: the paper

Questions & Answers about Я завернул подарок в бумагу.

Why is завернул used here, and what form is it?

Завернул is the past tense, masculine singular form of the verb завернуть.

A few important things are packed into this one word:

• за-вер-ну-л
• завернуть is the perfective verb
• завернул means wrapped / finished wrapping

So the sentence presents the action as completed:
I wrapped the gift in paper.

If you wanted the imperfective version, you would usually use заворачивать:

• Я заворачивал подарок в бумагу. = I was wrapping / I used to wrap the gift in paper.

Also, the ending -л here shows the speaker is masculine. A female speaker would say:

• Я завернула подарок в бумагу.

Why does завернул tell us the speaker is male?