Learn Spanish (Latin America): El guía fue directamente al palacio.

El guía fue directamente al palacio.

The guide went directly to the palace.

Breakdown of El guía fue directamente al palacio.

Questions & Answers about El guía fue directamente al palacio.

Why is fue used here, and how do I know if it means 'went' or 'was'?

Fue is the 'he/she/it' past tense (preterite) form for both ir (to go) and ser (to be). You can tell it means 'went' here because it is followed by a destination (al palacio). If it meant 'was', it would usually be followed by a description or a noun, like fue un buen guía (he was a good guide).

Guía ends in an 'a'. Why is it el guía instead of la guía?

When referring to a person, guía can be either masculine (el guía) or feminine (la guía) depending on the gender of the guide. Since we are using el, we know this specific guide is male. Be careful though: la guía can also mean a physical guidebook!

What is al short for in this sentence?

Al is a mandatory combination of the preposition a (to) and the masculine article el (the). Whenever a is immediately followed by el, they must merge into al to make pronunciation smoother.

How do you form words like directamente?