Breakdown of Caminamos muy despacito un ratito.
un
a, an (masculine)
caminar
to walk
muy
very
despacio
slowly
el rato
the while (period of time)
Questions & Answers about Caminamos muy despacito un ratito.
Why is it despacito instead of just despacio?
Adding -ito to the word despacio (slowly) softens it and adds a friendly, casual tone. While despacio just means slowly, despacito often translates to something like nice and slow. It is extremely common in Latin America to use diminutives this way to make a sentence sound warmer or more relaxed.
What is the base word for ratito?
You can put -ito on words that describe how we do things, like despacio? I thought it was just for physical things!
Good catch! While diminutives are most often added to nouns (like perrito for a little dog), Latin American speakers love to add them to adverbs (words that describe actions) too. For example, ahora (now) often becomes ahorita, and cerca (close) becomes cerquita.
Could caminamos also mean we walked in the past tense?
Yes! For regular verbs ending in -ar, the we form is exactly the same in both the present tense (caminamos for we walk) and the simple past tense (caminamos for we walked). You have to rely on the surrounding context of the conversation to know which time frame is meant.
Learn Caminamos muy despacito un ratito 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