Learn Spanish (Latin America): El imperio había construido esos muros hace muchos siglos. - The empire had built those walls many centuries ago.

El imperio había construido esos muros hace muchos siglos.

The empire had built those walls many centuries ago.

Breakdown of El imperio había construido esos muros hace muchos siglos.

Questions & Answers about El imperio había construido esos muros hace muchos siglos.

How do we form the past perfect tense in this sentence?

We use the imperfect form of the helper verb haber (which is había for el imperio) and add the past participle of the main verb, construir (to build), which is construido. Together, había construido means "had built".

Why doesn't construido have an accent mark? I thought participles with two vowels often need one, like leído.

Verbs ending in -uir are a special case! The combination of the vowels u and i in construido forms a weak vowel pair that naturally blends together into a single syllable. Because of this, the stress naturally falls on the i without needing a written accent mark.

Could I use paredes instead of muros for "walls"?

Not usually in this context. A muro is typically a thick, heavy exterior wall (like a fortress wall, a city wall, or a retaining wall), which fits what an ancient empire would build. A pared is usually a standard wall of a room or a house.

How does hace muchos siglos translate to "many centuries ago"?