El gato intentó escapar.

Because gato is a masculine noun in Spanish, so it takes the masculine singular article el.

• el gato = the male cat / the cat
• la gata = the female cat

In Spanish, articles must agree with the noun’s gender and number.

Not always. Gato can mean a male cat, but it is also often used as the general word for cat when the sex is unknown or irrelevant.

If you specifically want to say female cat, you would use gata.

Intentó is the preterite form of the verb intentar.

It is:

• 3rd person singular
• meaning he tried, she tried, or it tried

In this sentence, it matches el gato, so it means the cat tried.

The accent mark shows where the stress goes: in-ten-TÓ.

It also helps distinguish it from intento, which can mean:

• I try / I am trying (verb form), or
• attempt (noun)

So:

• intentó = he/she/it tried
• intento = I try or attempt

After intentar, Spanish normally uses an infinitive.

So the pattern is:

• intentar + infinitive

Examples:

• Intentó escapar = tried to escape
• Intento dormir = I try to sleep
• Intentamos salir = we try to leave

So escapar stays in the infinitive form, not a conjugated form like escapa.

Because Spanish uses intentar + infinitive directly, without a separate word like English to.

English says:

• tried to escape

Spanish says:

• intentó escapar

This is just how the verb intentar works. You do not say intentó a escapar.

Because Spanish often omits subject pronouns when the subject is already clear.

Here, the subject is explicitly stated as el gato, so adding él would be unnecessary.

Spanish prefers:

• El gato intentó escapar.

Not usually:

• Él el gato intentó escapar.

And if the sentence were only Intentó escapar, Spanish could still understand he/she/it tried to escape from context.

This is the normal, neutral word order in Spanish:

• subject + verb + infinitive/complement

So:

• El gato = subject
• intentó = main verb
• escapar = infinitive complement

Spanish word order can sometimes change for emphasis, but this version is the most natural and straightforward.

They are not the same.

• intentó escapar = the cat tried to escape
• escapó = the cat escaped

So intentó escapar does not tell you whether the cat succeeded. It only tells you there was an attempt.

The preterite intentó presents the attempt as a completed event in the past.

So it sounds like:

• the cat made an attempt at a certain moment

If you used the imperfect, intentaba escapar, it would usually mean:

• the cat was trying to escape
• or the cat used to try to escape

So the choice depends on how the speaker sees the action:

• intentó = one completed attempt
• intentaba = ongoing, repeated, or background action

It is pronounced roughly in-ten-TOH, with the stress on the last syllable.

A more careful breakdown:

• in
• ten
• tó

The accent mark tells you that the last syllable is stressed.

Gato is pronounced roughly GAH-toh.

A few helpful points:

• the g is a hard g, like in go
• the a is a clear ah sound
• the t is a clean dental t, lighter than many English t sounds

So: GAH-toh.

Yes. Escapar can be used on its own to mean to escape or to run away.

So El gato intentó escapar is a complete sentence.

If you want to add where it escaped from, you can use de:

• El gato intentó escapar de la casa. = The cat tried to escape from the house.