Durante el día caminamos por la calle larga.

we

Breakdown of Durante el día caminamos por la calle larga.

• la calle: the street
• largo: long
• caminar: to walk
• el día: the day
• durante: during

Questions & Answers about Durante el día caminamos por la calle larga.

Why do we use Durante el día instead of Por el día?

In Spanish, durante is typically used to specify a time period over which an action occurs (meaning “during”). Using por el día could suggest something else, like “because of the day” or “for the day,” which doesn’t convey the same notion of a time span.

Why is the verb caminamos used here, and does it mean we walk or we walked?

In Spanish, caminamos can be both the present tense (we walk) and the preterite tense (we walked) for nosotros. Its meaning depends on context or other time expressions in the sentence. Here, since the time frame (durante el día) suggests a single completed action in the past, caminamos is understood as “we walked.”

Why is the preposition por used before la calle larga instead of something like en la calle larga or a lo largo de la calle?

Por often indicates movement through a place or along a path. Saying caminamos por la calle larga implies going along or through that street. En la calle larga could hint that you’re physically on the street without necessarily emphasizing movement, while a lo largo de la calle is more explicit about the direction “along the length of the street.”

Why does larga come after calle in la calle larga, rather than before it?

In Spanish, adjectives typically follow the noun, especially when they describe a physical characteristic (like long, tall, green, etc.). Placing larga after calle follows the standard word order in Spanish: [noun] + [adjective].

Could I say la larga calle instead of la calle larga?

While la larga calle would be grammatically correct, it’s less common and can shift the nuance, sometimes giving a more poetic or emphatic feel. Most of the time, native speakers would use la calle larga for “the long street.”

Why don’t we see nosotros in caminamos?

Spanish is a pro-drop language, meaning that subject pronouns (like nosotros) are often omitted because the verb form already indicates who is performing the action. Using nosotros isn’t wrong, but it’s not strictly necessary unless you want to emphasize “we” specifically.