El ciclo de lavado empieza ahora.

now

Breakdown of El ciclo de lavado empieza ahora.

• empezar: to begin
• el ciclo de lavado: the wash cycle

Questions & Answers about El ciclo de lavado empieza ahora.

Why is it empieza and not empeza?

Because empezar is a stem-changing verb in the present tense.

The infinitive is empezar, but in many present-tense forms, the e in the stem changes to ie:

• yo empiezo
• tú empiezas
• él/ella/usted empieza
• nosotros empezamos
• vosotros empezáis
• ellos/ellas/ustedes empiezan

So el ciclo is a third-person singular subject, which is why the verb is empieza.

Why is there El at the beginning?

El means the, and Spanish uses definite articles very often where English also uses the.

Here, el ciclo means the cycle. The noun ciclo is masculine singular, so it takes el.

• el ciclo
• el lavado
• el programa

Spanish articles must match the noun in gender and number.

Why does it say de lavado instead of something like lavado ciclo?