Learn Spanish (Spain): Ayer fuimos al puente y comimos en un restaurante. - Yesterday we went to the bridge and ate in a restaurant.

Ayer fuimos al puente y comimos en un restaurante.

Yesterday we went to the bridge and ate in a restaurant.

Breakdown of Ayer fuimos al puente y comimos en un restaurante.

and

a, an, some

in / on / by (means of transport) / about (after pensar)

comer

to eat; to have lunch

Questions & Answers about Ayer fuimos al puente y comimos en un restaurante.

Since 'fuimos' can mean 'we went' or 'we were', how do we know which one it is here?

Both ir (to go) and ser (to be) share the exact same forms in this past tense. You have to tell them apart by context. Here, the preposition a (to) hidden inside al shows direction toward a place, so fuimos must mean 'we went'.

Why is it al puente instead of a el puente?

In Spanish, whenever the preposition a (to) is immediately followed by the masculine singular article el (the), they must combine into the single word al. You will never see a el written as two separate words.

Is puente a masculine or feminine word?

It is masculine (el puente). Nouns ending in -e do not have a strict rule for gender, so it is best to memorize them with their article. The contraction al right before it is a helpful clue that it is masculine here!

Why is it comimos and not comemos?

Comemos is the present tense (we eat), while comimos is the past tense (we ate) for regular -er verbs like comer. The time word Ayer (yesterday) tells us we need the past tense here. Be careful not to confuse this with -ir verbs, which actually share the exact same form for both present and past (like vivimos)!