Question 1

Why use the imperfect acababan instead of the preterite acabaron here?

Accepted Answer

To say someone "had just" done something, you use the imperfect tense of acabar de followed by an infinitive (here, llegar). If you used the preterite (acabaron de llegar), it would mean they "finished arriving," which sounds unnatural here. The imperfect captures that background state of having just completed an action right before something else happened in the past.

Question 2

Is recién casados a set phrase for "newlyweds"?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Recién is a shortened form of recientemente (recently). It is very often paired directly with past participles (like casados) to mean "newly [done]". So, los recién casados literally translates to "the newly married ones," which is the standard way to say "the newlyweds."

Question 3

The English translation says "arrived at the hotel." Why is it al hotel instead of en el hotel?

Accepted Answer

In Spanish, verbs of destination like llegar (to arrive) or ir (to go) take the preposition a to show where the movement ends up. Since a + el combines into the contraction al, we get al hotel. Using en here is a common English speaker mistake, but it sounds to a Spanish speaker like you are arriving while already inside the hotel.

Question 4

Could I say habían llegado instead of acababan de llegar?

Accepted Answer

You could, but you would lose the emphasis on how recently it happened. Habían llegado is the past perfect tense and simply means they "had arrived" at some undefined point before. Acababan de llegar is a special formula that specifically means they "had just arrived" mere moments ago.

Los recién casados acababan de llegar al hotel.

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