Questions & Answers about El equipo evitó la amenaza.
Can you break the sentence down word by word?
Why is it el equipo and not la equipo?
What tense is evitó, and what exactly does it tell us?
Evitó is the third-person singular preterite of evitar.
That means:
- third person singular = he/she/it avoided
- in this sentence, the subject is el equipo, so it means the team avoided
- preterite = a completed action in the past
So evitó tells you that the avoiding happened as a finished event.
Compare:
- evita = avoids / is avoiding
- evitaba = was avoiding / used to avoid
- evitó = avoided
Why does evitó have an accent mark?
The accent mark shows both pronunciation and meaning.
- evitó = he/she/it avoided
- evito = I avoid
So the accent changes the form of the verb.
It also shows where the stress goes:
- e-vi-TÓ = evitó
- e-VI-to = evito
This is a very common pattern in the preterite:
- habló
- comió
- vivió
- evitó
Why is there no a before la amenaza?
Because la amenaza is the direct object, and with things, Spanish normally does not use a preposition before the direct object.
So:
- El equipo evitó la amenaza. = correct
The personal a is mainly used before specific people (and sometimes pets or personified beings), for example:
- El equipo evitó al periodista. = The team avoided the journalist.
But with a thing like la amenaza, there is no a.
Why do we say la amenaza instead of just amenaza?
Because Spanish often uses the definite article when talking about a specific, identifiable thing.
- la amenaza = the threat, a particular threat
- amenaza without an article would usually sound incomplete or less natural here
So El equipo evitó la amenaza suggests there was a known or relevant threat, and the team avoided it.
Why is the verb singular if a team has several people?
Because equipo is grammatically singular. It is a collective noun: one team, even if that team contains many people.
So Spanish uses a singular verb:
- El equipo evitó la amenaza.
If the subject were plural, the verb would be plural too:
- Los equipos evitaron la amenaza.
This works like English the team avoided..., where team is also grammatically singular.
Is the word order important here?
This sentence uses the most neutral and common word order in Spanish:
That is the standard way to say it.
Spanish can change word order for emphasis, but the basic version is this one. For example, you might see something more marked like:
- La amenaza la evitó el equipo.
That puts more emphasis on la amenaza, but it is less neutral than the original sentence.
How is this pronounced in Spanish from Spain?
A simple guide would be:
el eh-KEE-poh eh-bee-TOH la ah-meh-NA-tha
A few notes:
- equipo stresses qui: e-QUI-po
- evitó stresses the last syllable: e-vi-TÓ
- In much of Spain, the z in amenaza is pronounced like th in thin:
- a-me-NA-tha
- The v in evitó is pronounced like a soft Spanish b, not like a strong English v
A more Spain-oriented pronunciation would be approximately:
el e-KEE-po e-bi-TO la a-me-NA-tha
Could I also say El equipo ha evitado la amenaza?
Yes, but it is not exactly the same.
- El equipo evitó la amenaza = The team avoided the threat
A completed past action, often used in narration or for a finished past event. - El equipo ha evitado la amenaza = The team has avoided the threat
Often used for a past action that is seen as connected to the present.
In Spain, the present perfect (ha evitado) is used quite often for recent past events, especially if the time period is still considered current:
- Hoy el equipo ha evitado la amenaza.
But if you are simply telling a past event as a finished fact, evitó is very natural.
If I wanted to replace la amenaza with a pronoun, what would happen?
You would use the direct object pronoun la:
- El equipo la evitó. = The team avoided it.
Notice that in Spanish, object pronouns usually go before the conjugated verb:
- la evitó
So you do not say:
- El equipo evitó la ❌
You say:
- El equipo la evitó. ✅
That is a very common Spanish word order rule with pronouns.
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