Word
He recogido un pedazo del espejo roto.
Meaning
I have picked up a piece of the broken mirror.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of He recogido un pedazo del espejo roto.
un
a, an (masculine)
el espejo
the mirror
del
from the / of the
romper
to break
Questions & Answers about He recogido un pedazo del espejo roto.
Why is the word for "broken" roto instead of rompido?
Roto is the irregular past participle of the verb romper (to break). Just like in English where we say "broken" instead of "breaked," Spanish uses the special form roto instead of adding a regular ending. It is one of the most common irregular participles you will encounter.
Why does roto come after espejo here?
In this sentence, the past participle roto is being used as an adjective to describe the mirror. Just like most descriptive adjectives in Spanish, it comes after the noun it describes (espejo roto). Because it is acting as an adjective here, it must also match the noun in gender and number, which is why it ends in "-o" for the masculine and singular espejo.
Is recogido also an irregular past participle like roto?
No, recogido is completely regular! It comes from the verb recoger (to pick up or gather). To form its past participle, you simply drop the ending and add -ido. Combined with he (from the helper verb haber), the phrase he recogido means "I have picked up."
As a quick reminder, why do we use del here instead of de el?