Breakdown of El policía detuvo el tráfico ayer para dejar pasar a los peatones.
a
to
para
to
pasar
to pass
ayer
yesterday
el policía
the police officer
detener
to stop
el tráfico
the traffic
dejar
to let
el peatón
the pedestrian
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“How does verb conjugation work in Spanish?”
Spanish verbs change form based on the subject, tense, and mood. Regular verbs follow predictable patterns depending on whether they end in ‑ar, ‑er, or ‑ir. For example, "hablar" (to speak) becomes "hablo" (I speak), "hablas" (you speak), and "habla" (he/she speaks) in the present tense.
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Questions & Answers about El policía detuvo el tráfico ayer para dejar pasar a los peatones.
Why does the sentence use detuvo instead of paró?
Detener generally means stopping or holding something in place, often from the outside (like halting traffic). Parar can mean stopping oneself or something else, but in many Latin American contexts, detuvo is more common when referring to stopping a process (traffic) rather than stopping movement of the subject itself.
Why do we say a los peatones?
In Spanish, when the direct object is a person or a group of people, you usually need the personal a. Here, a los peatones clarifies that the pedestrians are the ones being allowed to pass.
What is the purpose of para before dejar pasar?
Para with an infinitive indicates purpose or intention. In this sentence, it tells us the policeman stopped the traffic in order to let the pedestrians go through.
Why is el policía used instead of un policía?
Using el policía suggests a specific officer—either one already known by the speaker and listener or simply the one present/on duty in that context. If you said un policía, it would mean any policeman without specifying which one.
Can ayer be placed somewhere else in the sentence?
Yes. In Spanish, time expressions like ayer can be placed at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence. You could also write Ayer, el policía detuvo el tráfico para dejar pasar a los peatones, and the meaning would remain the same.