Leí el cancionero y el catálogo.

to read

Breakdown of Leí el cancionero y el catálogo.

• y: and
• el catálogo: the catalogue
• el cancionero: the songbook

Questions & Answers about Leí el cancionero y el catálogo.

What tense is leí, and who is doing the action?

Leí is the first-person singular preterite of leer (to read).

So it means I read in the sense of I read it / I finished reading it at a specific time in the past.

The subject yo is not written because Spanish often leaves subject pronouns out when the verb ending already makes the subject clear. Here, -í shows that the subject is I.

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Why does leí have an accent mark?

The accent mark in leí shows that the stress falls on the í and that the vowels are pronounced separately:

• le-í → two syllables

Without the accent, Spanish spelling rules would suggest a different pronunciation. The accent helps show a hiatus instead of a diphthong.

So you pronounce it roughly as:

• leh-EE

not as one blended syllable.

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How do you pronounce leí?

In standard Spanish pronunciation, leí is pronounced approximately:

• leh-EE

with two clear syllables:

• le-í

The second syllable is stressed.

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What does el mean here?