Learn Spanish (Spain): ¿Fuiste al palacio? Necesitas ver los cuadros. - Did you go to the palace? You need to see the paintings.

The verbs ir (to go) and ser (to be) share the exact same forms in this past tense. You have to use the context to tell them apart. Because fuiste is followed by al palacio (to the palace), it involves motion, so it clearly comes from ir and means 'you went'.

Why does it say al instead of a el?

In Spanish, whenever the preposition a (to) is directly followed by the masculine word el (the), they always combine to form al. Since palacio is masculine, it is el palacio, so a plus el becomes al.

Why is there no extra word for 'to' between necesitas and ver?

In English, we say 'need to see', but in Spanish, the 'to' is already built into the infinitive verb ver (to see). When you use two verbs together like this, the first one is conjugated to match the person doing it (necesitas) and the second one stays in its full dictionary form (ver). You do not need any extra connecting words.

I thought a cuadro was a square?

It can be! Cuadro is a very versatile word. It can mean a square, a chart, or a frame. However, when talking about art in places like a palace or a museum, un cuadro refers to a framed painting or picture.