Los equipos compiten, intentan engañarse, pero empatan.

Los equipos means the teams.

• los = the for a masculine plural noun
• equipos = teams

Spanish usually uses the definite article more often than English does, so los equipos is the normal way to say the teams.

Because the sentence is talking about more than one team.

• equipo = team
• equipos = teams

The -s marks the plural, just like English often does.

Compiten is the third-person plural form of competir because the subject is los equipos (the teams), which is plural.

So:

• el equipo compite = the team competes
• los equipos compiten = the teams compete

Also, competir is a stem-changing verb, so the e changes to i in forms like compite and compiten.

Because Spanish often uses a structure like:

intentar + infinitive

That means to try to do something.

So:

• intentan = they try
• engañarse = to deceive each other / to deceive themselves

Together, intentan engañarse means they try to deceive each other in this context.

This is one of the most important parts of the sentence.

The base verb is:

• engañar = to deceive / to trick

But here we have:

• engañarse

The se can make the action reflexive or reciprocal. In this sentence, because the subject is plural (the teams), the most natural meaning is reciprocal:

• engañarse = to deceive each other

So the idea is not really they deceive themselves, but rather they try to trick one another.

Because in Spanish, with a conjugated verb plus an infinitive, the pronoun can often go in either place.

These are both possible:

• intentan engañarse
• se intentan engañar

Both mean essentially the same thing here.

Spanish allows object and reflexive pronouns either:

1. before the conjugated verb, or
2. attached to the infinitive

In this sentence, intentan engañarse sounds natural and compact.

No. It can mean different things depending on context.

Possible meanings include:

• to deceive oneself
• to be mistaken
• to deceive each other (with a plural subject)

In this sentence, since los equipos is plural and the situation is competitive, the intended meaning is to deceive each other.

Pero means but.

It introduces a contrast:

• Los equipos compiten = The teams compete
• intentan engañarse = they try to deceive each other
• pero empatan = but they tie / draw

So pero shows that the result is unexpected or contrasts with the earlier actions: even after competing and trying to trick each other, neither side wins.

Empatan comes from empatar, which means:

• to tie
• to draw (especially in sports or games)

Since los equipos is plural, we use empatan:

• el equipo empata = the team ties / draws
• los equipos empatan = the teams tie / draw

In Latin American Spanish, empatar is a very common verb for this idea.

Because Spanish usually does not need subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

For example:

• compiten
• intentan
• empatan

All of these are clearly they forms.

Also, the subject los equipos is already stated, so adding ellos would usually be unnecessary.

They are used to separate the different actions for clarity and rhythm:

• compiten
• intentan engañarse
• pero empatan

The commas help organize the sentence, especially because it has several coordinated parts. The comma before pero is very common when pero introduces a contrasting clause.

If you wanted to talk about just one team, you would make the subject and verbs singular:

• El equipo compite, intenta engañar, pero empata.

Notice the changes:

• los equipos → el equipo
• compiten → compite
• intentan → intenta
• empatan → empata

Also, engañarse would probably change depending on the meaning. With one team, engañarse could sound like deceive itself, so if you mean the team tries to deceive someone else, engañar may fit better.

The ñ is pronounced like the ny sound in canyon.

So engañarse sounds roughly like:

en-gahn-YAR-se

A few pronunciation notes:

• ñ = ny
• the stress falls on -ñar-
• the final se is pronounced clearly: seh

So it is not pronounced like a regular n. The ñ is a separate letter and a separate sound in Spanish.