Breakdown of Como nadie contestó, acababa de dejar un mensaje en el buzón.
un
a, an (masculine)
en
in / on / at
el mensaje
the message
nadie
no one
dejar
to stop / to leave (something behind)
acabar de
to have just
como
since / because (at the beginning of a sentence)
contestar
to answer
el buzón
the voicemail
Questions & Answers about Como nadie contestó, acababa de dejar un mensaje en el buzón.
How does acababa de dejar translate to 'had just left'?
The phrase acabar de followed by an infinitive (like dejar) means 'to have just done' something. When you put acabar in the imperfect tense (acababa), it describes an ongoing state in the past, meaning someone had just done something right before another past event. So, acababa de dejar means 'I had just left'.
How do we know acababa means 'I had just left'? Couldn't it be someone else?
Yes, it absolutely could! The imperfect form acababa is the exact same for 'I', 'he', 'she', and 'you' (formal). Out of context, this sentence could just as easily mean 'he had just left a message.' The translation uses 'I' as one natural interpretation, but in real life, the surrounding conversation would tell you who made the call.
I learned that como means 'how' or 'like'. Why does it mean 'since' here?
Why isn't there a no before contestó? I thought Spanish required double negatives.
Spanish requires a double negative only if the negative word (like nadie) comes after the verb, as in no contestó nadie. Because nadie (nobody) is placed before the verb in this sentence (nadie contestó), the extra no is not needed.
Does buzón mean 'voicemail'? I thought it was a physical mailbox.
It can be both! A buzón is traditionally a mailbox for physical mail. The full Spanish term for voicemail is buzón de voz (voice mailbox), but native speakers frequently shorten it to just buzón when it is obvious they are talking about a phone call.
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