Breakdown of Él tardó un año en memorizar el vocabulario.
él
he
un
a, an (masculine)
en
in / on / at
el año
year
tardar
to take time
memorizar
to memorize
el vocabulario
the vocabulary
Questions & Answers about Él tardó un año en memorizar el vocabulario.
Why do we use en before memorizar? In English, we just say to memorize.
The verb tardar (to take time) requires the preposition en when you mention the action that took time. The required formula is tardar + [amount of time] + en + [infinitive verb]. To remember this, it helps to translate it literally in your head as: He delayed a year in memorizing the vocabulary.
Could I use the verb tomar here to mean he took?
You can, but the sentence structure would change completely. You would have to say A él le tomó un año memorizar el vocabulario (literally: To him it took a year to memorize the vocabulary). The verb tardar is often simpler to use because the person doing the action is the main subject: Él tardó (He took).
Why is tardó in the preterite tense here instead of the imperfect tense?
We use the preterite tardó because the action of taking a year is viewed as a single, completed event with a clear end. He finished the process of memorizing the vocabulary, and the total time it took was exactly one year. If you used the imperfect tardaba, it would imply a habitual action in the past, like: He used to take a year.
Do I always have to use el before vocabulario in this kind of sentence?
Not necessarily. Using el vocabulario makes it specific, meaning he memorized a particular set of words, like a study list for a test. If you just said memorizar vocabulario, it would mean he spent a year memorizing vocabulary in a general, unspecified sense.
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