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Tratamos de llegar temprano.

Tratamos de llegar temprano.
We try to arrive early.
From Lesson 152:Verb-preposition combinations·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Tratamos de llegar temprano.

Why is there a de after tratamos?
In Spanish, when the verb tratar means "to try to do something," it must be followed by the preposition de. You connect it to the next action with de, making it tratar de llegar (to try to arrive).
Can I use probar to say "we try" in this sentence?
Not here! Probar means "to try" when you are tasting food or testing something out. When you are making an attempt to do an action, you need to use tratar de (or another similar verb, intentar).
Why doesn't llegar change to match "we"?
Because tratamos is already conjugated for "we." When you have a conjugated verb connected to another verb by a preposition (like de), the second verb always stays in its infinitive (dictionary) form, which is why we use llegar instead of llegamos.
Wait, doesn't tratamos also mean "we tried" in the past tense?
Yes, it does! For regular -ar verbs, the nosotros (we) form is exactly the same in both the present tense and the simple past tense (preterite). Without more context, this sentence could also correctly translate to "We tried to arrive early."

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