Breakdown of He puesto pegamento en el pedazo roto.
en
in / on / at
poner
to put
romper
to break
haber
(auxiliary) have
Questions & Answers about He puesto pegamento en el pedazo roto.
Why is the word for "put" puesto instead of something regular like "ponido"?
Puesto is the irregular past participle of the verb poner (to put). Just like in English we say "I have put" instead of "I have putted", Spanish uses he puesto instead of a regular ending.
Wait, isn't roto a verb form? Why is it describing el pedazo?
You are right! Roto is the irregular past participle of romper (to break). In Spanish, you can use past participles as adjectives to describe nouns. Here, it is used as an adjective to mean "broken".
Because roto is acting as an adjective here, does its ending change?
Yes, exactly! When you use a past participle as an adjective, it must match the gender and number of the noun it describes. Since el pedazo (the piece) is masculine and singular, we use roto. If you were talking about a feminine noun like la silla (the chair), it would be la silla rota.