¿Cómo supiste dónde enterrar el tesoro?

Questions & Answers about ¿Cómo supiste dónde enterrar el tesoro?

Why is the verb saber spelled as supiste here?
Supiste is the (informal you) form of saber (to know) in the preterite tense. Saber is highly irregular in the preterite: it changes its stem completely to sup- and uses a special set of endings without any accent marks.
Wait, doesn't the preterite of saber mean "to find out"?
Yes! In the preterite tense, saber usually implies a sudden realization, meaning "found out" or "learned" a piece of information, rather than ongoing knowledge (which would use the imperfect tense sabías). So, this sentence is essentially asking "How did you find out where to bury the treasure?"
Why does dónde have an accent mark if the main question is already started by ¿Cómo?
Question words like dónde (where), cómo (how), and qué (what) always keep their accent marks when they introduce an indirect question or an unknown variable inside a sentence. Even though the main question starts with ¿Cómo, the word dónde is still acting as a question word here.
Why is enterrar in the infinitive form rather than conjugated?
Just like in English, Spanish allows you to put an infinitive directly after a question word to express an instruction or intention, such as "where to go" or "what to do." Here, dónde enterrar directly matches the English structure "where to bury."

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