Breakdown of En la recepción del hotel nos preguntaron si ya habíamos reservado el autobús al aeropuerto.
Questions & Answers about En la recepción del hotel nos preguntaron si ya habíamos reservado el autobús al aeropuerto.
In Spanish, the preposition de plus the masculine singular article el normally contracts to del:
- de + el → del
- en la recepción de el hotel ❌
- en la recepción del hotel ✅
So “del hotel” just means “of the hotel” / “the hotel’s”.
This contraction is obligatory in standard Spanish, except when el is a pronoun or part of a proper name (e.g. de El País, the newspaper).
It can refer to both, depending on context:
- Literally, la recepción del hotel = the hotel reception/front desk area.
- In context, it often stands for the reception staff (metonymy), so:
- En la recepción del hotel nos preguntaron…
= At the hotel reception, they asked us…
(i.e. the people at the front desk asked us).
- En la recepción del hotel nos preguntaron…
English also does this: “Reception told us…”, “The front desk asked…”.
The verb preguntaron is 3rd person plural, preterite of preguntar (“they asked”).
The subject is not stated explicitly because in Spanish:
- The verb ending -aron already tells you it’s “they”.
- It’s clear from context: it means “the people at reception”.
So:
- (Ellos) nos preguntaron = They asked us.
- Spanish often drops subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, ellos…) when they’re obvious from context.
Nos is an object pronoun meaning “us” / “to us”.
In this sentence, it’s an indirect object pronoun:
- preguntar algo a alguien = to ask someone something
- nos preguntaron = they asked us
So the structure is:
- (ellos) = subject (implied)
- nos = indirect object (“to us”)
- preguntaron = verb
Literally: They asked us if we had already reserved the bus to the airport.
Spanish distinguishes clearly between:
- preguntar = to ask (a question)
- pedir = to ask for / request (something)
Here, they “asked us if we had reserved” — that’s a question, not a request. So:
- Nos preguntaron si ya habíamos reservado… ✅
They asked us whether we had already booked… - Nos pidieron si ya habíamos reservado… ❌ (not idiomatic)
Pedir would be used for requests:
- Nos pidieron que reserváramos el autobús.
They asked us to book the bus.
Here si means “if / whether” introducing an indirect question, not a conditional.
- Direct question:
¿Ya habéis reservado el autobús al aeropuerto?
Have you already booked the bus to the airport? - Indirect question (reported speech):
Nos preguntaron si ya habíamos reservado el autobús al aeropuerto.
They asked us if / whether we had already booked the bus to the airport.
It’s not conditional (like “If we had reserved the bus, …”).
It just reports what someone asked.
Ya adds the idea of “already / yet”:
- habíamos reservado = we had booked
- ya habíamos reservado = we had already booked
In questions and reported questions, ya often means:
- “yet” (from the asker’s perspective):
Have you booked yet? → ¿Ya habéis reservado? - or “already” (from the speaker’s perspective in the answer):
We had already booked. → Ya habíamos reservado.
So nos preguntaron si ya habíamos reservado reflects that nuance of “whether we had already done it (by that point)”.
Habíamos reservado is the past perfect (pluscuamperfecto):
- haber (imperfect) + participle
- habíamos reservado = we had booked
It’s used to talk about an action completed before another past moment:
- Past moment: At reception, they asked us…
- Earlier past action: we had (already) booked the bus.
So:
- Nos preguntaron si habíamos reservado…
= They asked us if we had booked… ✅
If you used reservamos (preterite: we booked), it wouldn’t clearly express that the booking was prior to the moment of asking.
The definite article el is used because both speakers know exactly which bus they’re talking about:
- It’s presumably a specific hotel–airport shuttle bus, a known service.
- So it’s “the bus (service) to the airport”, not just any random bus.
Compare:
- ¿Habéis reservado un autobús?
Have you booked a bus? (some bus, not specified) - ¿Habéis reservado el autobús al aeropuerto?
Have you booked the bus to the airport? (the known one)
Two things happen here:
Contraction:
- a + el → al (obligatory)
- a el aeropuerto ❌
- al aeropuerto ✅
Meaning of a:
- a commonly marks direction / destination:
el autobús al aeropuerto = the bus to the airport.
- a commonly marks direction / destination:
Para el aeropuerto could work in some contexts, but with transport + destination, a (→ al) is more natural in Spanish to mark “to / towards” the place:
- el tren a Madrid
- el vuelo a Londres
- el autobús al aeropuerto
In practice:
- si ya habíamos reservado ✅
- si habíamos ya reservado — possible but sounds marked / less natural in everyday speech.
The most neutral positions for ya are:
- Before the auxiliary: ya habíamos reservado (most common)
- Sometimes after the auxiliary: habíamos ya reservado (more formal or emphatic/poetic)
For a learner, it’s best to stick with:
- ya + auxiliary + participle → ya habíamos reservado
Yes, it’s reported (indirect) speech.
Direct question (what the staff actually said):
¿Ya han reservado el autobús al aeropuerto?
(Spain: they might say ¿Ya habéis reservado…? if using vosotros.)Reported afterwards:
En la recepción del hotel nos preguntaron si ya habíamos reservado el autobús al aeropuerto.
At the hotel reception they asked us if we had already booked the bus to the airport.
Notice the changes:
- Present perfect → Past perfect:
han reservado / habéis reservado → habíamos reservado - Direct question with ¿...? → clause with si.
Yes, in Spain the normal, standard word is autobús.
In Latin America, you’ll hear other words too, depending on the country/region:
- camión (e.g. in Mexico, for city buses)
- ómnibus, micro, bus, etc.
But in Spain:
- autobús = standard, neutral
- Sometimes bus is also used informally (especially in speech or advertising).
So for Peninsular Spanish, el autobús al aeropuerto is the natural choice.