Ayer busqué un regalo para mi primo, pero no lo encontré.

I

Breakdown of Ayer busqué un regalo para mi primo, pero no lo encontré.

• mi: my
• para: for
• encontrar: to find
• el primo: the cousin
• lo: it
• ayer: yesterday
• un: a
• buscar: to look for
• el regalo: the present
• pero: but

Questions & Answers about Ayer busqué un regalo para mi primo, pero no lo encontré.

Why is there an accent on busqué?

In Spanish, regular -ar verbs in the preterite tense end in -é for the yo form (I looked for). The accent mark indicates where the stress falls (on the last syllable, qué). Without the accent, it would be pronounced incorrectly.

Why do we use lo in no lo encontré?

In this sentence, lo is a direct object pronoun meaning it (referring to un regalo). Spanish uses direct object pronouns to replace nouns that are already mentioned or understood. Since el regalo is masculine and singular, we replace it with lo.

Could we say pero no lo encuentro instead of pero no lo encontré?

No lo encuentro means "I can’t find it (right now)," which is present tense. In contrast, no lo encontré means "I didn’t find it (yesterday or in the past)." Because the sentence starts with Ayer (yesterday), we use the preterite tense.

Why do we say para mi primo instead of por mi primo in this context?

Para conveys the idea of purpose or destination (the gift is intended for your cousin), while por is often used for reasons such as cause or exchange. Since the gift’s purpose/destination is your cousin, para is correct.

Is it necessary to say un regalo, or could we just say busqué regalo?

In this context, you need the article un to indicate "a gift." Spanish generally requires an article before countable nouns (like regalo) unless there’s a specific context allowing omission. Saying busqué regalo would sound incomplete or unnatural in standard Spanish.