Tropecé con la mochila de mi hermana al entrar en la biblioteca.

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Breakdown of Tropecé con la mochila de mi hermana al entrar en la biblioteca.

• mi: my
• la mochila: the backpack
• de: of

Questions & Answers about Tropecé con la mochila de mi hermana al entrar en la biblioteca.

Why is it tropecé and not tropezé?

Because the verb is tropezar. In Spanish, verbs ending in -zar change z to c before e in some forms to preserve the sound.

So:

• tropezar
• yo tropecé = I tripped

This is the same pattern as:

• empezar → empecé
• almorzar → almorcé

The accent on -é shows that it is 1st person singular preterite: I tripped.

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Why is tropecé used here instead of tropezaba?

Tropecé is the preterite, which is used for a completed action at a specific moment in the past.

Here, the speaker is talking about one event:

• Tropecé... = I tripped...

If you said tropezaba, that would usually suggest an ongoing, repeated, or background action, which does not fit as naturally here.

Compare:

• Tropecé con la mochila = I tripped over the backpack once.
• Tropezaba mucho de niño = I used to trip a lot as a child.

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Why is there con after tropecé?