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Me despedí de mis amigos en el aeropuerto.

Me despedí de mis amigos en el aeropuerto.
I said goodbye to my friends at the airport.
From Lesson 264:Pronominal meaning changes (dormirse, irse)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Me despedí de mis amigos en el aeropuerto.

Why do we need the pronoun Me here? What happens if I just say Despedí?
Without the pronoun, the verb despedir means to fire someone from a job. By adding the pronoun to make it the pronominal verb despedirse, the meaning changes completely to saying goodbye or taking leave. If you just said Despedí a mis amigos, it would mean you fired your friends!
In English we say goodbye TO someone. Why does this sentence use de mis amigos?
The verb despedirse always pairs with the preposition de to indicate who you are saying goodbye to. Because pronominal verbs often require different prepositions than their English translations, it helps to think of despedirse de as taking your leave FROM someone.
Could I use the word adiós to translate this sentence instead?
Yes! You can use the phrase decir adiós, which literally means to say goodbye. If you used that here, the sentence would be Les dije adiós a mis amigos. Notice that with decir, you use the preposition a to show who you are speaking to, which matches the English logic much better.
Why do we use en for at the airport, rather than a?
Even though English uses at, Spanish uses en to talk about being located inside or at a static physical place. You only use a with places when you are talking about movement or destination, such as traveling to the airport (Fui al aeropuerto).

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