Breakdown of Ellos se reunieron ayer para ir al concierto.
ellos
they
ir
to go
al
to the
el concierto
the concert
para
for
ayer
yesterday
reunirse
to get together / to meet
Questions & Answers about Ellos se reunieron ayer para ir al concierto.
Does the word ayer force the verb to be in a specific past tense?
Yes! Because ayer (yesterday) refers to a specific, completed timeframe, it is a huge clue to use the preterite tense (se reunieron). When you see expressions of past time like ayer or anoche (last night), you will almost always use the preterite rather than the imperfect tense.
Why is there a se before reunieron?
The verb here is reunirse (to get together / to meet up), so se is the reflexive pronoun for 'they'. It shows that they are getting together with each other. Without the se, reunir just means 'to gather' or 'to collect' something else, like gathering documents or collecting money.
Could I use por instead of para here?
No, you need para. When you want to express the purpose of an action or say 'in order to' do something, you always use para followed by an unconjugated verb (an infinitive). So, para ir translates directly to 'in order to go'.
Why does it say al concierto instead of a el concierto?
In Spanish, whenever the preposition a (to) is followed directly by the masculine word for 'the' (el), they must combine to form the contraction al. Since concierto is masculine (el concierto), we have to say al concierto.
Learn Ellos se reunieron ayer para ir al concierto and more in Spanish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free