Breakdown of Guarda la agenda en la mochila para no olvidarla.
Questions & Answers about Guarda la agenda en la mochila para no olvidarla.
Guarda is the tú affirmative imperative (an informal command) of guardar (to keep / to put away / to store). It tells one person (someone you’d address as tú) to do the action.
Yes. Guarda can also be the present tense form (él/ella guarda = he/she puts away). In this sentence, though, the structure and context strongly suggest a command: Guarda... para no... (Put... so you don’t...).
Yes—agenda is feminine in Spanish, so it takes la. Even though many words ending in -a are feminine, here it’s simply something you learn with the noun: la agenda.
En la mochila means in the backpack (inside it). Spanish uses en for location/placement inside or within something. A la mochila would suggest movement toward the backpack, but with guardar you normally use en to mark where you’re putting/storing something.
Para introduces purpose: in order to / so as to. After para, Spanish commonly uses an infinitive (olvidar) when the subject is the same (you’re the one doing both actions). No simply negates the infinitive: para no olvidar = so as not to forget.
Olvidarla = olvidar + la (a direct object pronoun meaning it, referring to la agenda). Spanish often uses a pronoun to avoid repeating the noun, especially when it’s already mentioned.
With an infinitive, both positions are possible:
- para no olvidarla (very common/natural)
- para no la olvidar (grammatical, but usually less natural) Attaching the pronoun to the infinitive is extremely common in everyday Spanish.
You can if you change the structure:
- Guarda la agenda en la mochila para que no la olvides. That version uses para que + subjunctive (olvides) and is also very normal. The infinitive version (para no olvidarla) is more compact and works well because the subject is understood to be the same person.
They’re related but not the same role:
- la in la agenda = the definite article (the)
- la in olvidarla = a direct object pronoun (it, feminine singular), referring back to la agenda
You could replace the noun with a pronoun and attach it to the command:
- Guárdala en la mochila para no olvidarla. Here Guárdala = Guarda + la (Put it away). The written accent appears (Guárdala) because Spanish adds an accent in many affirmative commands when pronouns are attached to keep the stress pattern correct.