Guardé el secreto.

to keep

Breakdown of Guardé el secreto.

• el secreto: the secret

Questions & Answers about Guardé el secreto.

What does guardé mean here?

Here, guardé means I kept in the sense of I did not reveal something.

Although the basic verb guardar often means to keep, to store, or to put away, in this sentence guardar un secreto means to keep a secret.

So Guardé el secreto means I kept the secret.

Why is there an accent on guardé?

The accent on guardé shows that this is the yo form of the pretérito (the simple past):

• yo guardé = I kept
• él/ella guardó = he/she kept

The written accent helps distinguish forms and also shows where the stress falls: guar-dé.

Without the accent, guarde would be a different form, such as:

• the present subjunctive: que yo guarde
• or the usted imperative: guarde usted

What tense is guardé?

It is the pretérito indefinido (usually just called the pretérito in many learning materials).

This tense is used for a completed action in the past. So Guardé el secreto presents the action as something finished: I kept the secret.

For example, it suggests something like:

• I kept the secret yesterday.
• I kept the secret during that whole situation.
• I did keep the secret.