Leí el programa electoral.

Leí is the pretérito indefinido in Spain, often called the preterite in English-language textbooks.

It expresses a completed action in the past: the reading happened and is viewed as finished.

So Leí el programa electoral presents the action as a single completed event, like:

• I read the election manifesto / I read the party platform

It is different from:

• leía = I was reading / I used to read
• he leído = I have read

In Spain, leí is very natural for a finished past action.

The accent mark shows the stress and also helps signal the correct pronunciation.

With leer, the preterite forms are:

• leí
• leíste
• leyó
• leímos
• leísteis
• leyeron

In leí, the e and í are pronounced in separate syllables: le-Í.

So it is not like one smooth diphthong. The accent on í helps show that break.

The subject is I.

Spanish often omits subject pronouns when the verb ending already makes the subject clear. Here, leí can only mean I read.

So:

• Leí el programa electoral = normal, natural Spanish
• Yo leí el programa electoral = also correct, but yo adds emphasis or contrast

For example:

• Yo leí el programa electoral, pero tú no.
  I read the manifesto, but you didn’t.

Because Spanish usually uses the definite article more often than English does.

Here, el programa electoral means the electoral programme / the election manifesto / the party platform, referring to a specific one.

Spanish often says:

• Leí el libro = I read the book
• Vi la película = I saw the film

Even where English might sometimes leave the article out, Spanish often keeps it.

Programa is one of several Spanish nouns of Greek origin that end in -a but are actually masculine.

So it is:

• el programa
• un programa

not la programa.

Other similar masculine nouns are:

• el problema
• el sistema
• el tema
• el idioma

So the ending -a does not always mean a noun is feminine.

In Spanish, most descriptive adjectives normally come after the noun.

So:

• programa electoral
• campaña política
• debate público

This is the standard order.

If an adjective appears before the noun in Spanish, it often adds a more subjective or stylistic nuance, but with electoral, the normal order is definitely after the noun.

In Spain, programa electoral usually refers to the set of promises, proposals, and policies a political party presents for an election.

Depending on context, English equivalents might be:

• election manifesto
• party platform
• electoral programme

So it is not a TV programme here. The word programa can mean many things, but in this political context it means a political programme or manifesto.

A careful pronunciation would be roughly:

le-Í el pro-GRA-ma e-lec-to-RAL

More approximately in IPA:

[leˈi el pɾoˈɣɾama elektoˈɾal]

A few useful points:

• leí has the stress on the last syllable: le-Í
• r in programa is tapped/flapped
• gr in programa is pronounced smoothly together
• electoral has the stress on the last syllable: -RAL

In natural speech, leí el may run together a bit.

Yes, absolutely.

Both are correct:

• Leí el programa electoral
• Yo leí el programa electoral

But the version without yo is more neutral and more common.

Adding yo usually does one of these things:

• adds emphasis
• creates contrast
• clarifies who did the action

For example:

• Yo leí el programa electoral; ellos no.

So unless you need emphasis, leaving out yo is usually the most natural choice.

Because the personal a is mainly used with direct objects that are people (and sometimes pets or personified beings).

Here, el programa electoral is a thing, not a person, so there is no personal a.

Compare:

• Vi a María. = I saw María.
• Leí el programa electoral. = I read the election manifesto.

So this sentence correctly has no a.