Perdió el control del coche.

Perdió is the preterite, which is used for a completed action in the past. In this sentence, the speaker is referring to a specific event: the person lost control at a particular moment.

• Perdió el control del coche = he/she lost control of the car
• Perdía el control del coche would suggest an ongoing or repeated idea, like was losing control of the car or used to lose control of the car, depending on context.

So perdió is the natural choice when describing one finished incident.

The accent mark shows the correct stress and also helps distinguish forms.

Perdió is the third person singular preterite of perder:

• yo perdí
• tú perdiste
• él/ella/usted perdió

The accent tells you the stress falls on the last syllable: per-dió.

Without the accent, perdio would be incorrect in standard Spanish spelling.

By itself, perdió can mean:

• he lost
• she lost
• you lost (formal singular: usted)

Spanish often omits subject pronouns when they are not necessary, because the verb ending already gives grammatical information.

So Perdió el control del coche could mean:

• He lost control of the car
• She lost control of the car
• You lost control of the car (formal)

You need context to know which one is meant.

Spanish often uses the definite article where English sometimes does not.

So:

• perder el control = to lose control

This is the normal expression in Spanish. Even though English says lose control without the, Spanish usually says perder el control.

This is a very common pattern, so it is best learned as a chunk:

• perder el control
• tener razón
• tener miedo
• dar un paseo

Not every phrase matches English word for word.

Del is the contraction of:

• de + el = del

So:

• del coche = of the car

The full idea is:

• el control del coche = the control of the car

In natural English, we usually say control of the car or simply control of the car/vehicle, but in Spanish del coche is completely normal.

Important:

• de + el = del
• but de + la = de la, not a contraction

Examples:

• la puerta del coche = the car door
• el motor del coche = the car’s engine

These are different meanings.

• Perdió el control del coche = He/She lost control of the car
• Controló el coche = He/She controlled the car or managed the car

The sentence is not saying the person controlled the car. It is saying the person stopped being able to control it.

The structure perder el control de algo is a very common expression:

• perdió el control de la situación = he/she lost control of the situation
• perdió el control de sus emociones = he/she lost control of his/her emotions

In Spain, coche is the most common everyday word for car.

Other words exist in other Spanish-speaking regions:

• carro is common in many parts of Latin America
• auto is used in some countries
• automóvil is more formal or technical

So for Spanish from Spain, coche is the best choice here.

Yes. Coche is a masculine noun, so it takes masculine articles and adjectives:

• el coche
• un coche
• el coche rojo

That is why the contraction is del coche:

• de + el coche = del coche

No, that would not be correct here.

You need del coche because you are talking about the control of the car. The article el belongs with coche, and de + el contracts to del.

So:

• Perdió el control del coche = correct
• Perdió el control de coche = incorrect in this sentence

Yes, Perdió el control del coche is completely natural in Spain.

Another very common version is:

• Perdió el control del vehículo = more formal, often used in news reports
• Se le fue el coche = more colloquial in some contexts, but it does not always mean exactly the same thing

For neutral, standard Spanish, Perdió el control del coche is an excellent sentence to learn.

In Spain, a simple pronunciation guide would be:

per-DYOH el kon-TROL del KO-che

A bit more closely:

• Perdió: the stress is on -dió
• control: stress on -trol
• coche: stress on co-

In much of Spain, coche is pronounced with the ch sound as in English church:

• KO-che

And c before o sounds like a normal k:

• co = ko