Word
Cuando la víctima se volteó, le guiñé el ojo a mi cómplice.
Meaning
When the victim turned around, I winked at my accomplice.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Cuando la víctima se volteó, le guiñé el ojo a mi cómplice.
mi
my
a
to
le
to him / to her / to you (formal)
cuando
when (statement)
Questions & Answers about Cuando la víctima se volteó, le guiñé el ojo a mi cómplice.
Why do we use el ojo instead of mi ojo?
In Spanish, when talking about body parts, you almost always use the definite article (el, la, los, las) instead of possessive adjectives (mi, tu, su). Since you are the one doing the winking, it is naturally understood that it is your own eye.
Why is the pronoun le used here if the sentence already says a mi cómplice?
This is a classic example of a redundant indirect object pronoun. In Spanish, when the indirect object (the person receiving the action) is explicitly named using a + [person/thing], the corresponding indirect object pronoun (le in this case) is practically always still required in the sentence.
Why is se volteó in the indicative and not the subjunctive after Cuando?
The conjunction cuando only triggers the subjunctive when it refers to a future, uncompleted, or anticipated event. Because this sentence is reporting a completed, factual action that already happened in the past, it simply uses the preterite indicative.
How would I change this sentence to say "I winked at my accomplice without the victim turning around" using this lesson's grammar?