Retiro el guante después de limpiar la mesa con un paño suave.

I

Breakdown of Retiro el guante después de limpiar la mesa con un paño suave.

• con: with
• la mesa: the table
• después de: after

Questions & Answers about Retiro el guante después de limpiar la mesa con un paño suave.

What part of speech is retiro here, and what tense/mood/person is it?

retiro is the first-person singular (yo) present indicative form of the verb retirar. It means I remove or I take off.

Why is limpiar in the infinitive after después de?

In Spanish, when you use a preposition like después de (after), the verb that follows must be in the infinitive. So you say después de limpiar (after cleaning).

Could I make limpiar agree in person (e.g. limpio) instead?

No. After a preposition (de, a, para, etc.) you always use the infinitive, not a conjugated form. Saying después de limpio would be ungrammatical.

Why use retirar instead of quitar or a reflexive like quitarse?

Retirar and quitar can both mean to remove, but retirar is a bit more formal/neutral. To express take off something you’re wearing, Spanish often uses the reflexive quitarse (e.g. me quito el guante), but here the sentence simply describes the action with retirar (non-reflexive).