Questions & Answers about En febrero mi profesora nos pidió una presentación corta sobre nuestro barrio.
Why is it En febrero and not febrero or en el febrero?
Spanish normally uses en with months to mean in:
- en febrero = in February
- en marzo = in March
You usually do not use the article here, so en el febrero would sound unusual unless you are talking about a very specific February already identified in context.
So the neutral, normal time expression is:
- En febrero...
Why is it mi profesora and not la mi profesora?
In standard Spanish, a possessive adjective like mi, tu, su, nuestro usually replaces the article.
So you say:
- mi profesora
- tu barrio
- nuestro libro
Not:
- la mi profesora ❌
Forms like profesora mía do exist, but they are used differently: they are usually more emphatic or contrastive, not the basic way to say my teacher.
What does nos mean here?
Nos is an indirect object pronoun meaning to us.
In this sentence:
- mi profesora = the person doing the asking
- una presentación corta = the thing requested
- nos = the people she asked
So grammatically, Spanish is structured like:
- My teacher asked us for a short presentation
With pedir, the thing asked for is the direct object, and the person being asked is often expressed with an indirect object pronoun like me, te, le, nos, os, les.
Why is it pidió and not pedió?
Because pedir is irregular in the preterite.
In the preterite, many -ir stem-changing verbs change in the third person forms only.
For pedir, the stem vowel changes from e to i:
- pedí
- pediste
- pidió
- pedimos
- pedisteis
- pidieron
So pidió is the correct third-person singular preterite form.
Why is the verb in the preterite: pidió instead of pedía?
Because the sentence describes a completed action in the past: at some point in February, the teacher made that request.
- pidió = a finished event
- pedía = was asking / used to ask
So:
- En febrero mi profesora nos pidió...
= one completed request in that time period
If you said pedía, it would suggest something habitual, repeated, or backgrounded:
- En febrero mi profesora nos pedía presentaciones...
= in February my teacher used to ask us for presentations
Could Spanish also say nos pidió que hiciéramos una presentación?
Yes. That is also very natural.
There is a useful difference:
- nos pidió una presentación corta
= she asked us for a short presentation - nos pidió que hiciéramos una presentación corta
= she asked us to make/do a short presentation
The sentence you have uses a noun phrase: una presentación corta.
If you want to express the requested action, Spanish often uses:
- pedir que + subjunctive
So both are good, but the structure is slightly different.
Why not say nos pidió hacer una presentación?
Because after pedir, Spanish normally uses que + subjunctive when one person asks another person to do something.
So Spanish prefers:
- Nos pidió que hiciéramos una presentación.
rather than:
- Nos pidió hacer una presentación. ❌ / unnatural in this meaning
The infinitive after pedir does not work well here because the action hacer una presentación is performed by us, not by the subject of pidió. Spanish usually makes that explicit with que + subjunctive.
Why is it una presentación corta and not una corta presentación?
Because in Spanish, descriptive adjectives usually come after the noun.
So the neutral, everyday order is:
- una presentación corta
- un barrio bonito
- una profesora simpática
Putting the adjective before the noun is sometimes possible, but it often sounds more literary, emphatic, or subjective:
- una corta presentación
That is not impossible, but una presentación corta is the normal choice here.
What does sobre mean here? Could it be de instead?
Here sobre means about or on the topic of.
- una presentación sobre nuestro barrio
= a presentation about our neighbourhood
You may sometimes hear de with topics, but sobre is especially clear and natural when talking about the subject matter of a talk, presentation, essay, etc.
So in this sentence, sobre is a very good choice.
Why is it nuestro barrio and not el barrio nuestro?
For the same reason as mi profesora: possessives usually go before the noun in normal Spanish.
So the default form is:
- nuestro barrio
The version after the noun:
- el barrio nuestro
is much more marked and is usually used only for emphasis or contrast, for example:
- No el suyo, sino el barrio nuestro.
In an ordinary sentence, nuestro barrio is the natural form.
Why is there no a nosotros after pidió?
Because nos already tells you to us.
Spanish often uses the object pronoun by itself:
- Mi profesora nos pidió...
You can add a nosotros only if you want emphasis or contrast:
- Mi profesora nos pidió a nosotros la presentación, no a ellos.
So in the basic sentence, nos is enough.
Why is it profesora and not profesor?
Because profesora is the feminine form, used for a female teacher.
- profesor = male teacher
- profesora = female teacher
In Spain, profesor/a is a very common word for a teacher, especially in secondary school and beyond.
You may also hear maestro/a, but that is often associated more with primary school or has a slightly different use depending on context.
Why does pidió have an accent mark?
The accent mark shows the correct stress.
Without the accent, pidio would be pronounced with the stress in the wrong place according to normal Spanish spelling rules.
The written accent tells you it is pronounced:
- pi-DIÓ
So the accent is not there just because the verb is irregular; it is there because Spanish spelling needs to mark the stress correctly.
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