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Ella compró unos sacapuntas para la oficina.

Ella compró unos sacapuntas para la oficina.
She bought some pencil sharpeners for the office.
From Lesson 324:Plural compound nouns·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Ella compró unos sacapuntas para la oficina.

Wait, shouldn't pencil sharpeners have an extra 's' at the end to make it plural?
No, sacapuntas stays exactly the same in its plural form. Compound nouns made of a verb plus a plural noun (like saca + puntas) do not change their spelling in the plural. You just change the article to plural, which is why we use unos here instead of un.
How exactly is the word sacapuntas formed?
It is a combination of the verb saca (from sacar, meaning to take out or extract) and the plural noun puntas (tips or points). So literally, it is a tip-extractor. This verb-plus-plural-noun structure is very common in Spanish for naming tools and devices.
Are most compound nouns like sacapuntas masculine?
Yes! Almost all compound nouns formed by combining a verb and a noun are masculine, regardless of the gender of the noun inside them. Even though puntas is feminine, the overall compound word el sacapuntas is masculine, which is why it takes the masculine plural article unos.
A quick refresher: why do we use para instead of por here?
We use para here because it indicates the final destination or the intended recipient of the pencil sharpeners (the office). If you used por, it would mean she bought them on behalf of the office, or that she walked through the office to buy them.

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