Breakdown of Él vuelve al hotel tarde.
él
he / him (after a preposition)
el hotel
the hotel
al
to the (m)
tarde
late
volver
to return
Questions & Answers about Él vuelve al hotel tarde.
Why is the verb vuelve and not volve?
The infinitive form is volver (to return). Because it is a stem-changing verb, the o changes to ue in the present tense for most forms, including the él (he) form. That is why it becomes vuelve.
Why does it say al hotel instead of a el hotel?
In Spanish, when the preposition a (to) is immediately followed by el (the masculine word for the), they must merge into the contraction al. This is a strict rule to make sentences flow faster when speaking.
Why does Él have an accent mark here?
The written accent mark shows that this word is the pronoun meaning he (él). Without the accent mark, el is just the article meaning the.
Do I have to include the word Él at the beginning of the sentence?
Not necessarily! In Spanish, you can usually drop the subject pronoun because the verb itself already tells us who is doing the action. Including Él here just adds emphasis or clears up any confusion about exactly who is returning.
Is the h in hotel pronounced like it is in English?
No, the letter h is always silent in Spanish. You pronounce this word as oh-TEL, putting the spoken emphasis on the final syllable.
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