El juicio terminó ayer.

In Spanish, it is very common to use the definite article with nouns when talking about a specific thing already understood from context.

So el juicio means the trial or the court case.

Saying just juicio by itself is possible in some contexts, but as a normal complete sentence, El juicio terminó ayer sounds much more natural.

Juicio most commonly means trial in a legal sense, as in a court trial.

Depending on context, juicio can also mean things like:

• judgment
• good sense
• reason

But in this sentence, it clearly means a legal trial.

Terminó is the preterite form of terminar, and it is used for a completed action in the past:

• El juicio terminó ayer = The trial ended yesterday

This makes sense because ayer gives a finished time period: yesterday.

Why not the others?

• terminaba = imperfect, often used for ongoing, repeated, or background past actions
  
  • This would not fit as well if you simply mean the event ended.
• ha terminado = present perfect
  
  • In Spain, this can sometimes be used for recent past events, but with ayer, speakers often prefer the preterite: terminó.

Terminó is third person singular in the preterite.

That means it can mean:

• he ended
• she ended
• it ended
• you ended (formal singular, usted)

In this sentence, it means it ended, because the subject is el juicio.

The accent marks both pronunciation and meaning.

• termino = I end / I do finish (present tense)
• terminó = he/she/it ended (preterite)

So the accent is important because it distinguishes different verb forms.

Pronunciation-wise:

• termino stresses mi: ter-MI-no
• terminó stresses the last syllable: ter-mi-NÓ

Spanish often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed, because the verb ending already gives information.

In terminó, the verb form tells you it is third person singular. Since el juicio is already the subject, there is no need to add a pronoun.

Spanish usually prefers:

• El juicio terminó ayer.

rather than something unnatural like:

• El juicio él terminó ayer.

Putting ayer at the end is the most neutral and natural word order here:

• El juicio terminó ayer.

Spanish is fairly flexible, so you could also say:

• Ayer terminó el juicio.
• El juicio ayer terminó. (less neutral, more marked)

The original sentence is the most straightforward way to say it.

Yes. Acabar can also mean to end or to finish, so:

• El juicio acabó ayer

is also correct.

However, terminar is extremely common and very neutral here. Both work, but terminó is a very standard choice.

You can sometimes hear se terminó, but it can sound slightly different depending on context.

• El juicio terminó ayer = straightforward: The trial ended yesterday
• El juicio se terminó ayer = possible, but less neutral here; it may sound more like came to an end or can feel a bit more conversational in some contexts

For a learner, terminó is the safest and most standard form in this sentence.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

el HWEE-thyo ter-mee-NO ah-YEHR

In much of Spain:

• juicio sounds roughly like HWEE-thyo
• the c in juicio is pronounced like th in thin

If you are pronouncing it in Latin American Spanish, you would usually hear:

el HWEE-syo ter-mee-NO ah-YEHR

It is not passive. It is a normal active-style intransitive use of the verb.

Here, el juicio is the thing that ended:

• El juicio terminó ayer.

This is similar to English:

• The trial ended yesterday.

There is no passive structure like:

• The trial was ended yesterday

So terminó here simply means ended.

Usually, in everyday Spanish, juicio strongly suggests a legal trial unless context clearly points elsewhere.

If someone wanted to talk about judgment in the sense of opinion or good sense, the sentence would usually need a different context to make that clear.

So on its own, El juicio terminó ayer will normally be understood as The trial ended yesterday.

You would change both the article, the noun, and the verb:

• Los juicios terminaron ayer. = The trials ended yesterday.

Changes:

• el → los
• juicio → juicios
• terminó → terminaron

This is a good example of subject-verb agreement in Spanish.