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Ayer celebraron el festival en la plaza.

Ayer celebraron el festival en la plaza.
Yesterday they celebrated the festival in the square.
From Lesson 129:Preterite of regular -ar verbs·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Ayer celebraron el festival en la plaza.

How do we know celebraron means "they celebrated" in the past?
The ending -aron is the key. For regular -ar verbs like celebrar, removing the -ar and adding -aron tells us the action was completed in the past by "them" (or the formal "you all"). The word ayer (yesterday) is a huge hint that we need this past tense!
Why isn't there a word for "they" (ellos or ellas) before celebraron?
In Spanish, you do not usually need the subject pronoun if the verb ending already makes it clear who is doing the action. Because the -aron ending in celebraron already means "they" (or "you all"), adding ellos is optional and often dropped to sound more natural.
In English we might say "at the square". Why does the Spanish sentence use en?
The Spanish word en is a great multi-tasker! It translates to "in", "on", or "at" depending on the situation. So, en la plaza can perfectly mean either "in the square" or "at the square" without needing to change the preposition.
Can I move the word ayer to a different part of the sentence?
Yes, time markers like ayer are very flexible. You could easily say Celebraron el festival en la plaza ayer and it would be completely correct. Putting it at the very start just puts a little extra emphasis on exactly when the festival happened.

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