Breakdown of La semilla germinó; trasplanté la planta, pero luego se pudrió.
pero
but
la planta
the plant
la semilla
the seed
luego
later
Questions & Answers about La semilla germinó; trasplanté la planta, pero luego se pudrió.
Why are germinó, trasplanté, and se pudrió all in the preterite?
Because the sentence tells a sequence of completed events:
- the seed sprouted
- I transplanted the plant
- then it rotted
In Spanish, the preterite is the normal tense for single, finished actions in a story.
If you used the imperfect instead, it would sound more like background description, an ongoing action, or a habitual action, not a clear chain of events.
What are the infinitives of the verbs in this sentence?
They are:
- germinó ← germinar
- trasplanté ← trasplantar
- se pudrió ← pudrirse
More specifically:
- germinó = third person singular preterite
- trasplanté = first person singular preterite
- se pudrió = third person singular preterite of the pronominal verb pudrirse
Why doesn’t the sentence say yo trasplanté?
Because Spanish often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed.
The ending -é in trasplanté already tells you the subject is I. So yo would usually be unnecessary unless you wanted emphasis or contrast.
This is very normal in Spanish:
- Trasplanté la planta = I transplanted the plant