Learn Spanish (Latin America): El hombre sugirió comprar el champú barato. - The man suggested buying the cheap shampoo.

El hombre sugirió comprar el champú barato.

Breakdown of El hombre sugirió comprar el champú barato.

comprar

Questions & Answers about El hombre sugirió comprar el champú barato.

Why is it sugirió with an i instead of sugerió?

Sugerir (to suggest) is an -ir verb that has a special stem change in the preterite (past) tense. For these verbs, the e right before the ending changes to an i in the third-person forms. Because the man (he) is the one suggesting, we use sugirió. If you wanted to say I suggested, it keeps the e and becomes sugerí.

Why do we use the infinitive comprar right after sugirió?

When one verb directly follows another like this, the second verb usually stays in its infinitive (unchanged) form. The first verb sugirió already tells us who is doing the action and when it happened, so comprar simply provides the name of the action being suggested.

Could I say sugirió comprando to mean suggested buying?

No, Spanish does not use words ending in -ando or -iendo as nouns the way English uses -ing words. When an action is used as a concept or noun, like the act of buying, Spanish always uses the infinitive form, which is comprar here.

Why does the word champú have a written accent mark?

Champú is borrowed from the English word shampoo. In Spanish, words ending in a vowel naturally have the spoken stress on the second-to-last syllable. Because the strong stress in champú actually falls on the final u, it needs a written accent mark to break the standard pronunciation rule.