Learn Spanish (Latin America): ¿Siempre trepabas la pared del patio?

¿Siempre trepabas la pared del patio?

Did you always climb the yard wall?

Breakdown of ¿Siempre trepabas la pared del patio?

Questions & Answers about ¿Siempre trepabas la pared del patio?

Why use trepabas here instead of the simple past tense trepaste?

The word siempre (always) is a huge clue! In Spanish, you use the imperfect tense to talk about past habits or things you used to do repeatedly. For regular -ar verbs like trepar (to climb), you drop the -ar and add -abas to make the tú (you) form in the imperfect. If you used trepaste, it would sound like you only climbed the wall exactly one time.

Could I use the verb escalar to say "climb" here instead?

You could, but trepar is much more natural for this sentence. Trepar is used for climbing things like trees, walls, or fences, usually scrambling up with your hands and feet. Escalar is generally reserved for scaling mountains or rock climbing.

I thought words that don't end in "-a" are usually masculine. Why is it la pared?

While it's true that many feminine words end in -a, words that end in -d are a major exception and are almost always feminine. Other common examples you might already know are la ciudad (the city) and la verdad (the truth).

Why are we using del before patio?