Questions & Answers about Compramos dos sacacorchos nuevos.
Wait, why isn't sacacorchos pluralized as "sacacorchoses"?
Sacacorchos is a compound noun made from a verb (saca, meaning "pulls out") and a plural noun (corchos, meaning "corks"). When a compound noun is formed this way, its spelling stays exactly the same in the plural. Instead of changing the noun itself, you show it is plural by changing the words around it, as we did here with dos and nuevos.
Why is the adjective nuevos masculine? How do I know the gender of a compound noun?
Are there other common words built the exact same way as sacacorchos?
Yes, this "verb + plural noun" formula is everywhere in Spanish! Some common examples are el abrelatas (can opener, from abre + latas), el lavaplatos (dishwasher, from lava + platos), and el paraguas (umbrella, from para + aguas). Just like sacacorchos, they are all masculine and their spelling doesn't change when pluralized.
I noticed compramos is translated as "we bought". Doesn't it also mean "we buy"?
It does! For regular -ar and -ir verbs, the nosotros form is exactly the same in both the present and the preterite (simple past) tenses. Without more context, compramos could mean either "we buy" or "we bought", but the past tense is usually the most logical fit for a standalone sentence describing a specific purchase.
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