Breakdown of Acababan de abandonarlo intencionalmente cerquita del barranco.
cerca
close / near
del
from the / of the
lo
it / him (direct object)
abandonar
to abandon
acabar de
to have just
intencionalmente
intentionally
el barranco
ravine
Questions & Answers about Acababan de abandonarlo intencionalmente cerquita del barranco.
Why is acababan in the imperfect tense here rather than the preterite?
The phrase acabar de followed by an infinitive means to have just done something. When you want to say someone had just done something in the past, you use the imperfect tense (acababan). Using the preterite (acabaron) would change the meaning to simply finishing an action, translating roughly to they finished abandoning it, rather than the immediate they had just sense.
How would we change this sentence to say 'They probably had just abandoned it' using this lesson's focus on past conjecture?
Does cerquita mean something slightly different from cerca?
Yes! In Latin American Spanish, adding a diminutive suffix like -ita to an adverb of location is very common and acts as an intensifier. While cerca means near, cerquita emphasizes the proximity, meaning right near or very close.
Could I place the pronoun lo before the conjugated verb instead of attaching it to abandonar?
Absolutely. In verb phrases with an infinitive, you can either attach the object pronoun to the end of the infinitive, as done here (acababan de abandonarlo), or place it before the conjugated verb (lo acababan de abandonar). Both are perfectly natural and mean the exact same thing.
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