Breakdown of Mi padre va al supermercado y luego al trabajo.
y
and
el padre
the father / the parents
mi
my
ir
to go
al
to the
el supermercado
the supermarket
luego
later
el trabajo
the work
Questions & Answers about Mi padre va al supermercado y luego al trabajo.
Why does it say al supermercado instead of a el supermercado?
In Spanish, whenever the preposition a (to) is followed directly by the masculine word for "the" (el), they must combine into the single word al. Because supermercado is a masculine noun, a + el becomes al.
Why is the verb va used here?
Va is the "he/she/it" form of the highly irregular verb ir (to go). We use it here because the subject doing the action is Mi padre (My father), which counts as a "he".
Wait, doesn't trabajo mean "I work"? Why is it used as a destination here?
Why is al repeated before trabajo?
In English, we often drop the second "to the" and just say "to the supermarket and then work." In Spanish, you generally need to repeat the preposition (a) and the article (el) for every destination you list, so we have to include al again.
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