Breakdown of Se felicitaron después del evento acuático porque estaban de lo más felices.
de
from / of
feliz
happy
estar
to be (location/state)
porque
because
del
from the / of the
el evento
the event
más
more
se
each other (reciprocal)
lo
the ... thing (neuter article)
después
after / afterwards
felicitar
to congratulate
acuático
aquatic
Questions & Answers about Se felicitaron después del evento acuático porque estaban de lo más felices.
Why is felices plural when it comes directly after the singular phrase lo más?
The phrase de lo más acts like an adverb here, meaning "incredibly" or "extremely." Even though de lo más itself is invariable (it never changes gender or number), the adjective following it must still agree with the subject of the sentence. Since the subject ("they") is plural, you must use the plural felices, not the singular feliz.
How is de lo más felices different from just saying muy felices or felicísimos?
How do we know Se felicitaron means "they congratulated each other" and not "they congratulated themselves"?
The pronoun se can be used for both reflexive actions (doing something to oneself) and reciprocal actions (doing something to each other). Here, context tells us it's reciprocal. If you ever need to clarify that an action is reciprocal rather than reflexive, you can add a phrase like el uno al otro or mutuamente.
Why does this sentence mix the preterite (felicitaron) and the imperfect (estaban)?
We use the preterite felicitaron for the main action because the congratulating was a completed event that happened at a specific point in time (after the event). We use the imperfect estaban because it describes an ongoing emotional state—their happiness was the background condition that caused the action, rather than an action with a clear start and end.
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