Breakdown of El cómplice le acababa de atar los cordones al compañero.
los
the (masculine plural)
al
to the
le
to him / to her / to you (formal)
el compañero
colleague / the roommate
acabar de
to have just
atar
to tie
el cómplice
the accomplice
el cordón
shoelace
Questions & Answers about El cómplice le acababa de atar los cordones al compañero.
Why is acababa in the imperfect tense here instead of the preterite?
The phrase acabar de followed by an infinitive means "to have just done something." To say someone had just done something before another past event, you must use the imperfect tense (acababa). If you used the preterite (acabó), it would sound more like "he finally finished tying" rather than "he had just tied."
Why does it say los cordones instead of sus cordones?
In Spanish, when talking about putting on, taking off, or adjusting clothing and body parts, you typically use definite articles (el, la, los, las) instead of possessive adjectives (su, sus). The ownership is instead shown by the indirect object pronoun le, meaning the action is done "to him."
Is it necessary to use both le and al compañero?
Yes, this is a standard rule in Spanish known as indirect object duplication. Even though al compañero explicitly tells us who receives the action, the indirect object pronoun le is almost always grammatically required alongside it to anchor the sentence.
How could we add "without the classmate noticing" to practice this lesson's focus on sin que clauses?
You would add sin que se diera cuenta to the end of the sentence. Since sin que (without) always triggers the subjunctive, and our main verb (acababa) is in a past tense, we must use the past subjunctive (diera) for the condition clause.
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