Breakdown of El paciente acababa de dormirse en el quirófano.
en
in / on / at
acabar de
to have just
el paciente
the patient
dormirse
to fall asleep
el quirófano
the operating room
Questions & Answers about El paciente acababa de dormirse en el quirófano.
Why is the verb dormirse used here instead of just dormir?
Why is acabar in the imperfect tense (acababa) instead of the preterite (acabó)?
The phrase acabar de followed by an infinitive is a special formula. When you use it in the present tense (like acaba de), it means someone "has just" done something. When you put it in the imperfect tense (acababa de), it shifts to the past, meaning someone "had just" done something right before another past event. Using the preterite (acabó de) would literally mean "finished doing" something, losing that "had just" meaning.
The pronoun se is attached to the end of dormir. Could I put it somewhere else in the sentence?
Yes! Because acababa de dormirse acts as a single verb phrase, you have two choices for pronoun placement. You can attach it to the infinitive as shown here, or you can place it right before the conjugated verb: El paciente se acababa de dormir. Both are perfectly correct and mean the exact same thing.
What exactly is a quirófano? Can I just say "sala de operaciones"?
You can say sala de operaciones, but quirófano is the standard, everyday medical term for an operating room in Spanish.
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