Log inSign up

El otro día llegamos tarde.

El otro día llegamos tarde.
The other day we arrived late.
From Lesson 171:Sequencing past events·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of El otro día llegamos tarde.

la tarde
the afternoon
llegar
to arrive
el otro día
the other day

Questions & Answers about El otro día llegamos tarde.

How do we know llegamos means "we arrived" instead of "we arrive"?
The verb form llegamos is exactly the same in both the present tense and the preterite (completed past) tense! You have to rely on context clues. Here, the phrase el otro día (the other day) makes it clear we are talking about a completed action in the past.
Why doesn't tarde change its ending to match the plural nosotros (we)?
In this sentence, tarde is used as an adverb meaning "late," describing when or how the action of arriving happened. Adverbs are invariable, meaning they never change their endings to match gender or number.
How does this simple past sentence relate to the past perfect tense we are learning?
Sentences in the preterite (like this one) often serve as the "anchor" for the past perfect. The past perfect tells us what happened before this anchor. For example, you could expand this sentence to say: El otro día llegamos tarde porque el tren se había retrasado (The other day we arrived late because the train had been delayed).
Is el otro día a common trigger for the preterite tense?
Yes! Phrases like el otro día (the other day), ayer (yesterday), or la semana pasada (last week) usually trigger the preterite rather than the imperfect. They frame the action as a single, completed event in a specific past timeframe.

Learn El otro día llegamos tarde and more in Spanish

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Spanish →