Word
Pintamos un cartel político en la manifestación pacífica.
Meaning
We paint a political sign at the peaceful protest.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Lesson
Breakdown of Pintamos un cartel político en la manifestación pacífica.
nosotros
we
en
at
un
a
pintar
to paint
Questions & Answers about Pintamos un cartel político en la manifestación pacífica.
What tense is pintamos here, and could it also mean “we paint”?
Pintamos can be either:
- Present tense: “we paint”
- Preterite (simple past): “we painted”
In Spanish, the 1st person plural (we) form of many verbs is the same in the present and the preterite.
For pintar:
- Present: (nosotros) pintamos = we paint / we are painting
- Preterite: (nosotros) pintamos = we painted
Which one it is depends on context.
In the sentence Pintamos un cartel político en la manifestación pacífica, speakers will usually understand it as past (“we painted…”) unless the wider context clearly refers to a habitual action or something happening right now.
If you want to make the past 100% clear, you can add a time word:
- Ayer pintamos un cartel político… – Yesterday we painted a political sign…
If you want to make the present 100% clear:
- Ahora pintamos un cartel político… – Now we’re painting a political sign…
Why is there no word for “we” in the sentence?