Learn Spanish (Latin America): El guardia durmió desde el mediodía hasta la una.

El guardia durmió desde el mediodía hasta la una.

The guard slept from noon until one.

Breakdown of El guardia durmió desde el mediodía hasta la una.

Questions & Answers about El guardia durmió desde el mediodía hasta la una.

Why do we use desde and hasta here instead of de and a?

You can actually use either pair! Both de... a... and desde... hasta... mean from... to... when talking about time. Using desde and hasta just puts a little more emphasis on the duration and the specific starting and ending points.

Why is it el guardia if the word ends in -a?

The word guardia can be masculine or feminine depending on who it refers to. El guardia means the male guard. If you said la guardia, it could mean the female guard, or refer to the guard unit or police force as a whole.

Why is the verb durmió instead of dormió or duermió?

In the present tense, dormir has an o-to-ue stem change, like in duerme. But in the past tense, which is called the preterite, verbs ending in -ir get a different spelling change for the he/she/they forms. The o changes to a u, making it durmió.

Why do we say el mediodía but la una?