Breakdown of Buscamos el casco alrededor de la cascada.
buscar
to look for
la
the (feminine)
la cascada
the waterfall
alrededor de
around
Questions & Answers about Buscamos el casco alrededor de la cascada.
Why do we use alrededor de here instead of por to mean 'around'?
Alrededor de is used specifically for a spatial trajectory that circles or surrounds a perimeter. If you said por la cascada, it would mean you looked 'in the general vicinity of' the waterfall, rather than actively searching in a circle around its edges.
Why isn't it buscamos por el casco?
Is buscamos in the present tense or the past tense here?
It translates to the past tense (preterite) here, but it looks exactly like the present tense! For all regular -ar verbs, the nosotros (we) ending is -amos in both tenses. In real life, you rely on context clues from the conversation to know if it means 'we look' or 'we looked'.
Why does alrededor need de after it?
Many Spanish location phrases use a noun to describe space, requiring de (of) to connect it to the object. The word rededor means 'surroundings', so alrededor de la cascada literally translates to 'at the surroundings of the waterfall'. This is why you can't skip the de.