Question 1

Why do we use por here instead of en to say "on" the highway?

Accepted Answer

When talking about movement through, along, or by a place, Spanish uses por. While en usually implies being stationary in or on a location, por la autopista gives the active sense of traveling along that route.

Question 2

Could manejamos also mean "we drove" in the past?

Accepted Answer

Yes! For regular -ar verbs, the nosotros form is exactly the same in both the present tense (we drive) and the preterite past tense (we drove). You have to rely on the surrounding context to know if it is happening now or happened in the past.

Question 3

I often see conducir for "to drive." Why use manejar here?

Accepted Answer

In Latin America, manejar is the standard, everyday word for driving a vehicle. Conducir is perfectly understood, but it is much more commonly used in Spain or in formal Latin American contexts.

Question 4

Since we are learning about giving advice with the conditional, how would I say "We should drive on the highway"?

Accepted Answer

You would use the conditional form of deber (to owe / must) followed by the infinitive verb. That gives you Deberíamos manejar por la autopista. If you wanted to advise someone by saying what you would do in their shoes, you could use the conditional of the main verb: Yo manejaría por la autopista (I would drive on the highway).

Manejamos por la autopista.

Breakdown of Manejamos por la autopista.

Questions & Answers about Manejamos por la autopista.

Learn Manejamos por la autopista and more in Spanish