El soldado volvió a casa.

El is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.

So:

• el soldado = the soldier
• un soldado = a soldier

In this sentence, el tells us we are talking about a specific soldier, not just any soldier.

Volvió is the third-person singular preterite form of volver, which means to return or to come back.

So volvió means:

• he returned
• she returned
• it returned
• or, with the noun already stated, the soldier returned

The full preterite forms of volver are:

• yo volví
• tú volviste
• él/ella/usted volvió
• nosotros volvimos
• vosotros volvisteis
• ellos/ellas/ustedes volvieron

Because the sentence is talking about a completed past action.

• vuelve = he/she returns or is returning (present tense, depending on context)
• volvió = he/she returned (preterite, a finished action in the past)

So if the soldier already got home, Spanish uses volvió.

The accent mark shows which syllable is stressed: vol-VIÓ.

Without the accent, Spanish pronunciation rules would make you stress it differently. The written accent makes the pronunciation clear and also helps distinguish this past-tense form.

So:

• volvió = preterite, he/she returned

The accent is an important part of the spelling.

Spanish often omits subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

In volvió, the ending tells us it is third-person singular. Since the sentence already has El soldado, adding él would usually be unnecessary.

So Spanish normally says:

• El soldado volvió a casa.

not:

• El soldado él volvió a casa.

You could say Él volvió a casa if the subject were already understood and you wanted to say He returned home, but here El soldado already does that job.

Here a means to and shows movement toward a destination.

So:

• volver a casa = to return home
• literally, something like to return to home

This a is very common with verbs of movement:

• ir a casa = to go home
• venir a casa = to come home
• volver a casa = to return home

This is a very common question. In Spanish, casa often appears without an article when it means home in the general sense.

So:

• volver a casa = to return home
• ir a casa = to go home
• llegar a casa = to arrive home

But a la casa is also possible when you mean to the house/building more specifically.

Compare:

• Volvió a casa. = He returned home.
• Volvió a la casa. = He returned to the house.

The version without the article feels more like home; the version with the article points more to a specific physical house.

Yes, but in this kind of sentence, English usually translates it as home.

Spanish often uses casa where English prefers home:

• Estoy en casa. = I am at home.
• Voy a casa. = I am going home.
• Volvió a casa. = He returned home.

So although casa literally means house/home, the natural translation here is usually home.

Usually, yes, but in everyday English the best translation can vary depending on context:

• to return
• to come back
• to go back

So El soldado volvió a casa could be understood as:

• The soldier returned home
• The soldier came back home
• The soldier went back home

The exact English version depends on context and style, but the Spanish sentence itself is perfectly normal.

This is the most neutral Spanish word order:

• subject: El soldado
• verb: volvió
• destination/complement: a casa

Spanish word order is often flexible, but this is the standard, straightforward order.

You could also hear:

• Volvió a casa el soldado.

But that sounds more marked or literary, or it may put extra focus on the soldier.

For a learner, El soldado volvió a casa is the basic pattern to remember.

A rough pronunciation is:

• sol-DA-do

More precisely in standard Spanish:

• sol has an o like the o in a short, pure vowel sound
• da is stressed: sol-DA-do
• both d sounds are softer than a typical strong English d, especially between vowels

A simple learner-friendly approximation is:

• sohl-DAH-doh

A rough pronunciation is:

• bol-BYOH

A few useful points:

• Spanish v and b are pronounced very similarly
• the stress is on the last syllable because of the accent mark: vol-VIÓ
• vió sounds roughly like byoh

A more careful approximation would be:

• bol-BYOH

In most of Spain, casa is pronounced approximately:

• KA-sa? Not quite.
• More specifically: KA-tha

That is because in most of Spain, z and c before e/i are pronounced like the th in think. Since casa has s, not c before e/i, wait carefully: here the s stays s. So the pronunciation is actually:

• KA-sa

In central and northern Spain, c before a is still just k, so casa is KA-sa.

So for this word:

• casa = KA-sa

A useful reminder is:

• c only has the th sound in many parts of Spain before e or i, as in cine or cena, not here.

Yes. Soldado is a masculine noun, and the ending -o is a strong clue.

That is why it takes:

• el soldado

The feminine form is:

• la soldado or la soldada, depending on usage and context

Traditionally, soldado has often been used as a common noun for soldiers in general, but grammatically in this sentence el soldado is clearly masculine singular.

Because the subject is singular:

• El soldado = the soldier = one person

So the verb must also be singular:

• volvió = returned for he/she/it

If the subject were plural, the verb would change:

• Los soldados volvieron a casa. = The soldiers returned home.

Yes. Regresó a casa is also correct and means almost the same thing.

Compare:

• El soldado volvió a casa.
• El soldado regresó a casa.

Both mean The soldier returned home.

In many contexts, volver is a very common everyday choice. Regresar is also common and perfectly natural. A learner should understand both.

Because fue and volvió do not mean the same thing.

• fue a casa = went home
• volvió a casa = returned home / went back home

Volvió implies that the soldier was away and then came back.
Fue only tells us that he went there; it does not necessarily suggest a return.

The infinitive is volver.

You can think of the sentence like this:

• volver = to return
• volvió = returned

This is useful because dictionaries list verbs under the infinitive form, so if you want to look up volvió, you should look for volver.

It is partly irregular, depending on the tense.

In the present tense, it has a stem change:

• vuelvo
• vuelves
• vuelve

But in the preterite used here, it is regular:

• volví
• volviste
• volvió

So learners often notice:

• present: o → ue
• preterite: no stem change here

That is why the sentence has volvió, not vuelvió.

Not by itself. Volvió means returned/came back, but it does not necessarily mean again in the sense of repetition being emphasized.

If you really wanted to emphasize again, Spanish could say:

• El soldado volvió otra vez a casa.

But usually volvió a casa already naturally conveys the idea of coming back.