Breakdown of He cruzado muchas fronteras, pero hoy no salí del hostal.
pero
but
no
no, not
mucho
many / a lot
hoy
today
del
from the / of the
salir
to go out / to leave
cruzar
to cross
haber
(auxiliary) have
el hostal
hostel
la frontera
border
Questions & Answers about He cruzado muchas fronteras, pero hoy no salí del hostal.
Why is the present perfect (he cruzado) used in the first half, but the preterite (salí) in the second half?
This perfectly captures the Latin American approach to the past! We use the present perfect (he cruzado) for general life experiences, meaning 'I have crossed' at some unspecified time in my life. However, for a finished action that happened today, Latin American speakers use the preterite (salí). While in Spain you might hear hoy no he salido, Latin America prefers the preterite for closed events, even if they happened hoy (today).
I noticed it says del hostal. Why isn't it de el hostal?
This is a mandatory contraction from earlier lessons that is easy to forget! Whenever the preposition de (from/of) is followed right away by the masculine article el (the), they must squish together into del. Because hostal is a masculine noun, we say del hostal (from the hostel). Note that this contraction only happens with the article el, not the pronoun él (he).
Is hostal just another word for hotel?
Is salí an irregular verb in the preterite tense?
No, it is completely regular! The infinitive is salir (to leave / to go out). To form the 'I' form in the preterite for an -ir verb, you just drop the -ir and add -í. It follows the exact same pattern as regular verbs like vivir (viví) or escribir (escribí).
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