Word
Termino de escribir la conclusión en menos de diez minutos.
Meaning
I finish writing the conclusion in less than ten minutes.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Lesson
Breakdown of Termino de escribir la conclusión en menos de diez minutos.
yo
I
el minuto
the minute
escribir
to write
diez
ten
Questions & Answers about Termino de escribir la conclusión en menos de diez minutos.
What does termino mean here, and what tense/person is it?
Termino is the 1st-person singular (yo) form of terminar in the present tense: (yo) termino = I finish / I’m finishing.
It’s different from terminó (with an accent), which is he/she/you (formal) finished in the preterite.
Why is there a de after termino? Why not termino escribir?
Because Spanish uses the structure terminar de + infinitive to mean to finish (doing something).
So termino de escribir = I finish writing (literally, I finish of writing → I finish writing).
Is Termino de escribir... the same as Acabo de escribir...?
Not exactly.
- Acabo de + infinitive strongly means I just (did something) = very recent past.
- Termino de + infinitive is usually I finish / I’m finishing, but in some contexts it can sound close to I’ve just finished, especially if the focus is on completing the action.
Why isn’t the subject (yo) written?