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Mi abuelo murió el año pasado.

Mi abuelo murió el año pasado.
My grandfather died last year.
From Lesson 106:Preterite stem changes for -ir verbs·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Mi abuelo murió el año pasado.

Wait, the verb for 'to die' is morir. Why is it spelled murió with a 'u' here?
This is a special spelling change in the past tense (preterite). For some -ir verbs that have an 'o' in their stem, like morir (to die) or dormir (to sleep), that 'o' changes to a 'u'. However, this only happens in the third-person forms ('he/she/it/you formal' and 'they/you all'). Since we are talking about mi abuelo (he), morir becomes murió.
How do I know to use the preterite tense (murió) here instead of the imperfect tense?
The phrase el año pasado (last year) is a big clue! The preterite is used for actions that are viewed as completed events in the past. Since dying is a clear, one-time completed event, the preterite is exactly what you need here.
Why is there an el before año pasado? In English we just say 'last year.'
In Spanish, you almost always need a definite article (el or la) when talking about specific days of the week, dates, or time periods like 'last year' or 'next month'. Since año is masculine, we use el año pasado (which literally means 'the past year').
I sometimes hear people say se murió. Could I use that in this sentence?
Yes, you absolutely can! In everyday Latin American Spanish, people often use the reflexive form se murió. Both murió and se murió mean 'died,' but adding the se often sounds a bit more natural or emotionally involved in casual conversation. Either one is completely correct here.

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