Log inSign up

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.
From Lesson 121:Since and until (desde, hasta)·Spanish (Latin America)

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?
We use la una because it refers to la hora una (the first hour), and the word hora is feminine. However, mediodía means midday. Since el día (the day) is a masculine word that breaks the normal gender rules, el mediodía is also masculine.

Learn El guardia durmió desde el mediodía hasta la una and more in Spanish

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Spanish →