Ayer puse una queja porque el portero cerró la puerta y me dejó fuera.

Yesterday I made a complaint because the doorman closed the door and left me outside.

Breakdown of Ayer puse una queja porque el portero cerró la puerta y me dejó fuera.

• yo: I
• me: me
• y: and
• cerrar: to close

Questions & Answers about Ayer puse una queja porque el portero cerró la puerta y me dejó fuera.

Why is it puse and not something like poní?

Because poner is an irregular preterite verb.

Its preterite forms are:

• yo puse
• tú pusiste
• él/ella/usted puso
• nosotros pusimos
• vosotros pusisteis
• ellos/ellas/ustedes pusieron

So Ayer puse una queja means Yesterday I made/filed a complaint.

A useful thing to notice: several common verbs have this same kind of irregular preterite pattern, for example:

• tener → tuve
• estar → estuve
• poder → pude
• poner → puse

So puse is just the correct yo form of poner in the preterite.

Why are all the main verbs in the preterite: puse, cerró, dejó?

Because the sentence talks about completed actions at a specific time in the past.

The word ayer (yesterday) strongly suggests a finished past time period, so Spanish normally uses the pretérito indefinido here:

• Ayer puse una queja
• el portero cerró la puerta
• me dejó fuera

Each action is presented as a finished event:

1. I filed the complaint.
2. The doorman shut the door.
3. He left me outside.

If the sentence were describing background, repeated habits, or an ongoing situation, Spanish might use the imperfect instead. But here it is a chain of completed events, so the preterite is the natural choice.