Learn Spanish (Latin America): Pensamos que el debate terminó muy mal. - We think that the debate ended very badly.

In Spanish, affirmative verbs of belief or thought, like pensamos (we think), state what you consider to be a fact. Because you're declaring this belief, the following verb stays in the indicative mood (terminó). If you made it negative—no pensamos que... (we don't think that...)—it would introduce doubt, requiring the subjunctive (like terminara or haya terminado).

Why does the sentence use mal instead of malo?

Mal (badly) is an adverb, which means it describes how an action happened. Here, it describes the verb terminó (how it ended). Malo (bad) is an adjective, which is used to describe nouns (like un debate malo - a bad debate).

Wait, doesn't pensamos also mean "we thought" in the past tense?

Yes! For regular -ar verbs like pensar, the nosotros (we) form is exactly the same in both the present tense and the preterite (simple past) tense. Without more context, pensamos could mean either "we think" or "we thought." Here, we've translated it as the present tense, but "We thought the debate ended very badly" is also a perfectly valid translation!

Why is terminó in the preterite tense rather than the imperfect?