¿Quién abrió la puerta del escenario?

Questions & Answers about ¿Quién abrió la puerta del escenario?

Why does this sentence use abrió instead of abre?
abrió is the past tense (preterite) form of the regular -ir verb abrir (to open). We use the -ió ending because the question word quién (who) acts as a third-person singular subject, just like "he" or "she". abre would mean "opens" in the present tense.
If quién means "who", how do I know whether to use a singular or plural verb ending?
When you don't know who did the action, you default to the singular quién and the singular verb abrió. If you expect the answer to be multiple people, you can use the plural quiénes with the plural verb abrieron.
Why do we say la puerta del escenario instead of la puerta escenario?
English lets you stack nouns to make phrases like "stage door", but Spanish requires you to say "the door of the stage". When the word de (of) is followed by the masculine article el (the), they must combine into the mandatory contraction del.
Does escenario just mean "stage"?
In a theater, concert, or performance context, yes, escenario is the physical "stage". In other contexts, it can also mean a "setting", "scene", or "scenario".

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