Breakdown of Cuando llegamos al hotel, la recepcionista me dio la contraseña del wifi y una carpeta con información.
con
with
nosotros
we
de
of
llegar
to arrive
y
and
me
me
cuando
when
a
to
el hotel
the hotel
dar
to give
la información
the information
la contraseña
the password
la carpeta
the folder
el wifi
the Wi-Fi
la recepcionista
the receptionist
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Questions & Answers about Cuando llegamos al hotel, la recepcionista me dio la contraseña del wifi y una carpeta con información.
Why does the sentence start with Cuando?
Cuando introduces a time clause meaning “when.” In Spanish, if you’re talking about something that actually happened, you pair Cuando with the indicative (here llegamos) rather than the subjunctive.
Why is llegamos in the preterite and not the imperfect?
Because it describes a completed action at a specific moment in the past (“we arrived”). The imperfect (llegábamos) would suggest a habitual or ongoing action, not a single, finished event.
Why do we say al hotel instead of a el hotel?
Spanish contracts a + el into al. Since hotel is masculine (el hotel), you use al hotel.
Why is it la recepcionista instead of el recepcionista? Does gender matter?
Recepcionista is a common-gender noun. The article shows the person’s gender. La recepcionista means a female receptionist; if it were a man, you’d say el recepcionista.
What is the role of me in me dio?
Me is the indirect-object pronoun meaning “to me.” In Spanish, pronouns like me, te, le usually go before the conjugated verb (dio, “gave”).
Why is contraseña spelled with an ñ?
Contraseña means “password.” The letter ñ represents a distinct “ny” sound (like in “canyon”). Without the tilde it would be a different word, so always include ñ.
Why does it say del wifi? Isn’t “wifi” feminine (la wifi)?
You’ll see both genders in casual use, but here wifi is treated as masculine (el wifi), so de + el contracts to del. You could also say de la red wifi to stress the feminine red.
What does una carpeta con información refer to?
Carpeta means “folder” and con means “with.” So una carpeta con información is “a folder with information” (maps, brochures, schedules, etc.) the receptionist handed you.
Why is there no comma before y una carpeta?
Spanish generally doesn’t use a comma before the final y in a list. You separate earlier items with commas and simply join the last two with y.