El pájaro escapó ayer.

The bird escaped yesterday.

Breakdown of El pájaro escapó ayer.

• ayer: yesterday
• el pájaro: the bird
• escapar: to escape

Questions & Answers about El pájaro escapó ayer.

Why is it el pájaro and not just pájaro?

In Spanish, articles are used more often than in English. El pájaro usually means the bird, referring to a specific bird that speaker and listener can identify.

Using just pájaro here would sound incomplete in a normal sentence like this. Spanish generally wants a determiner such as el, un, mi, etc.

• El pájaro escapó ayer = The bird escaped yesterday
• Un pájaro escapó ayer = A bird escaped yesterday

Why is pájaro masculine?

Pájaro is a masculine noun, so it takes the masculine article el.

A good general rule is:

• nouns ending in -o are often masculine
• nouns ending in -a are often feminine

So:

• el pájaro
• el libro
• la casa

Biological sex and grammatical gender are not always the same thing. Pájaro is grammatically masculine as a word, even if the actual bird could be female.

What tense is escapó?