Breakdown of Nosotros compramos un cinturón barato y el de ese hombre.
de
from / of
y
and
un
a, an (masculine)
comprar
to buy
Questions & Answers about Nosotros compramos un cinturón barato y el de ese hombre.
Why does the Spanish sentence use el de ese hombre to mean "that man's"?
Spanish doesn't have an apostrophe-'s for possession. Instead, it uses the pattern "the [item] of the [person]". To avoid repeating the word cinturón (belt), we use the definite article el as a placeholder. So, el de ese hombre literally translates to "the one of that man".
Why do we use el specifically here instead of la or lo?
Why is "that man" translated as ese hombre instead of eso hombre?
Doesn't compramos mean "we bought" in the past tense?
It can mean both! For regular verbs ending in "-ar", the "we" (nosotros) form is exactly the same in the present tense ("we buy") and the simple past tense ("we bought"). You usually rely on context or time words like "yesterday" or "every day" to know which one it is.