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Intentamos comunicarnos, pero el wifi era pésimo.

Intentamos comunicarnos, pero el wifi era pésimo.
We tried to communicate, but the Wi-Fi was awful.
From Lesson 219:The past resultative (acababa de)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Intentamos comunicarnos, pero el wifi era pésimo.

Why does intentamos translate to the past tense "we tried" when it looks like the present tense "we try"?
For regular -ar verbs, the nosotros (we) form is spelled exactly the same in both the present tense and the preterite (completed past) tense. We can tell it means "we tried" here because the rest of the sentence is in the past tense, using era (was).
Why is nos attached to the end of comunicar?
When a verb is in the infinitive (the unconjugated dictionary form ending in -ar, -er, or -ir), pronouns can be attached directly to the end of it. Here, nos shows that the action is mutual, making comunicarnos mean "to communicate with each other."
Why do we use the preterite for intentamos but the imperfect for era?
Intentamos (we tried) is in the preterite because it refers to a specific, completed attempt. Era (was) is in the imperfect because it describes an ongoing background condition or sets the scene—in this case, the terrible state of the Wi-Fi while they were trying to connect.
What is the difference between pésimo and malo?
Pésimo means "awful" or "terrible." It is an extreme adjective that acts like a much stronger version of malo (bad). Because it already means "extremely bad" on its own, you generally don't use words like muy (very) in front of it.

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