Breakdown of Admiro el milagro que ocurrió ayer.
que
that / than
ayer
yesterday
ocurrir
to happen
el milagro
the miracle
admirar
to admire
Questions & Answers about Admiro el milagro que ocurrió ayer.
Why isn't there a "personal a" after admiro?
We only use the "personal a" when the direct object of the verb is a specific person or a beloved pet. Since el milagro (the miracle) is a concept or thing, not a person, we do not add an a before it.
Why is ocurrió in the preterite tense instead of the imperfect?
Could we use cual instead of que to mean "that" in this sentence?
No, que is the best choice here. In Spanish, que is the most common relative pronoun used to connect parts of a sentence, meaning "that," "which," or "who." You would typically only use forms of el cual after prepositions or in clauses separated by commas that just add extra information.
Can I use pasó instead of ocurrió here?
Yes! Pasar and ocurrir both mean "to happen" and are very interchangeable in this context. Ocurrió sounds slightly more formal, similar to "occurred" versus "happened" in English, but both are perfectly natural to use.
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