Por la tarde, nosotros empezábamos a saltar la cuerda.
In the afternoon, we would start to jump rope.
Breakdown of Por la tarde, nosotros empezábamos a saltar la cuerda.
nosotros
we
la tarde
afternoon
a
to
empezar
to start / to begin
la
the (feminine)
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
saltar
to jump
la cuerda
the rope
por la tarde
in the afternoon
Questions & Answers about Por la tarde, nosotros empezábamos a saltar la cuerda.
Why does empezábamos have an accent mark, but forms like empezaba do not?
The translation says "we would start". Isn't "would" a different tense?
In English, we often use "would" to describe past habits, meaning "we used to start". In Spanish, this concept is expressed using the imperfect tense. You don't use the conditional tense here because it is a repeated past action, not a hypothetical "what if" scenario.
Doesn't empezar usually have a stem change, like in empiezo?
Why is there an a between empezábamos and saltar?
In Spanish, whenever the verb empezar (to start) is followed immediately by an action (an infinitive verb ending in -ar, -er, or -ir), it must be connected with the preposition a. That is why we say empezar a saltar instead of just empezar saltar.
Why do we say Por la tarde instead of En la tarde to mean "in the afternoon"?
When talking about a general part of the day, Spanish typically uses the preposition por. Phrases like por la mañana, por la tarde, and por la noche are set expressions that you will hear very often for "in the morning/afternoon/evening".
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