Word
Nos peleamos, pero siempre nos perdonamos.
Meaning
We fight, but we always forgive each other.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Nos peleamos, pero siempre nos perdonamos.
pero
but
siempre
always
nos
each other (reciprocal)
pelear
to fight
Questions & Answers about Nos peleamos, pero siempre nos perdonamos.
Why do both verbs in this sentence have nos in front of them?
In this sentence, nos is being used as a reciprocal pronoun meaning "each other." By placing nos in front of the verbs peleamos (we fight) and perdonamos (we forgive), it shows that the action is happening back and forth between the people involved: "we fight each other" and "we forgive each other."
We previously learned that nos means "ourselves." How do I know it means "each other" here?
You are exactly right that nos is a reflexive pronoun for "ourselves" (like in nos lavamos, meaning "we wash ourselves"). However, plural pronouns like nos (we) and se (they/you all) double as reciprocal pronouns. You just have to rely on context! In this case, it makes much more logical sense to say "we fight each other" rather than "we fight ourselves."
Since peleamos and perdonamos are spelled exactly the same in both the present and past tense, how do we know this is present tense?
Context is key! For regular -ar verbs, the "we" form (nosotros) is identical in the present tense and the simple past (preterite) tense. However, the word siempre (always) tells us this is an ongoing routine. If the speaker wanted to describe a routine in the past, they would have used the imperfect tense instead: nos peleábamos, pero siempre nos perdonábamos.
Can I put siempre at the end of the sentence instead of before ?