Casi choqué con una ciclista al salir de la farmacia.

Because the sentence refers to a single completed past moment: a near-collision that almost happened.

Spanish usually uses the preterite here:

• Casi choqué = I almost crashed / I almost collided

If you said casi chocaba, it would sound unusual here because the imperfect usually describes background, repeated actions, or ongoing situations in the past, not one specific near-accident.

So for a one-time event, casi + preterite is the most natural choice.

There are two reasons:

1. It is the 1st person singular preterite of chocar:

   • yo choqué
   • tú chocaste
   • él/ella chocó

2. The verb changes spelling from c to qu before e to keep the hard k sound:

   • chocar
   • yo choqué
     If it were written choce, the pronunciation would change.

So choqué is the normal spelling for I crashed / I collided.

Because the verb is commonly used as chocar con = to crash into / collide with.

Examples:

• Choqué con un coche. = I crashed into a car.
• Casi choqué con una ciclista. = I almost collided with a cyclist.

In English, we often say crash into, but in Spanish the usual preposition here is con.

Because chocar con works fine without a reflexive pronoun when you mean to collide with something/someone.

• Choqué con una ciclista = I collided with a cyclist

You may sometimes hear reflexive forms like me choqué con..., especially in some varieties, but choqué con... is very natural and standard.

So for learners, chocar con is a good pattern to remember.

Yes. Ciclista is one of those nouns that usually has the same form for both genders. The article tells you whether it is masculine or feminine:

• un ciclista = a male cyclist
• una ciclista = a female cyclist

So in this sentence, una shows that the cyclist is a woman.

Al + infinitive is a very common Spanish structure. It usually means:

• when ...
• upon ...
• on ...ing
• sometimes as ...

So:

• al salir de la farmacia = when leaving the pharmacy / as I was leaving the pharmacy

It comes from:

• a + el = al
• salir = to leave / to go out

This structure is very common:

• Al llegar, te llamo. = When I arrive, I’ll call you.
• Al entrar, vi a Marta. = When I went in, I saw Marta.

Yes, absolutely.

• Casi choqué con una ciclista al salir de la farmacia.
• Casi choqué con una ciclista cuando salí de la farmacia.

Both are natural.

The difference is mostly stylistic:

• al salir is a bit more compact and elegant
• cuando salí is more explicit and straightforward

In many everyday situations, both work well.

Because de la farmacia usually refers to a specific pharmacy that the speaker has in mind.

• de la farmacia = from/out of the pharmacy
• de una farmacia = from/out of a pharmacy

In real conversation, if the speaker is talking about the pharmacy they were just in, la farmacia is the natural choice.

It can mean either, depending on how you translate it into natural English.

• salir de la farmacia literally = to go out of the pharmacy
• natural English = to leave the pharmacy / to come out of the pharmacy

In this sentence, the idea is that the near-collision happened as the person was coming out.

Yes. In Spain, farmacia is the normal word for the place where you get medicine, prescriptions, and related products. In British English, it often overlaps with chemist’s; in American English, it is often pharmacy or part of a drugstore.

So the Spanish word is straightforward, but the exact English equivalent depends on the variety of English.

Because that is the most natural place when casi modifies the whole action:

• Casi choqué con una ciclista. = I almost collided with a cyclist.

Putting casi before the verb clearly shows that the action nearly happened.

You may see other word orders in some contexts, but for learners, casi + verb is the safest and most natural pattern.

Yes. The subject is yo, but Spanish often leaves subject pronouns out because the verb ending already tells you who it is.

• choqué = I collided / I crashed

So:

• (Yo) casi choqué con una ciclista...

Including yo is possible, but unnecessary unless you want emphasis or contrast.

A broad guide would be something like:

• Casi ≈ KAH-see
• choqué ≈ cho-KEH
• con una ≈ kon OO-na
• ciclista in most of Spain ≈ thee-KLEES-ta or thik-LEES-ta depending on how carefully it’s pronounced
• al salir ≈ ahl sah-LEER
• de la farmacia ≈ de la far-ma-THYA in much of Spain

A few pronunciation notes for Spain:

• c before i/e is often pronounced like th in thin
• final written accents like in choqué show where the stress goes: cho-QUÉ

Not if you want the same meaning.

• una ciclista = a female cyclist
• una bicicleta = a bicycle
• una persona en bici = a person on a bike

So if the near-collision was with the person, ciclista is the best word. If it was with the bike itself, then bicicleta would mean something different.