Breakdown of Ayer hice un pastel y lo compartimos juntos.
y
and
un
a, an, some
hacer
to do, to make
lo
it / him (m)
Questions & Answers about Ayer hice un pastel y lo compartimos juntos.
Why is the verb for 'I made' spelled hice instead of following normal past tense rules?
Hacer (to do/make) is highly irregular in the simple past tense (pretérito indefinido). It belongs to a special group of verbs that change their stem to include an 'i'. The stem hac- changes to hic-, and for the 'I' (yo) form, it takes the irregular ending -e, giving us hice. Watch out for the 'he/she/it' form: the 'c' changes to 'z' (hizo) to keep the soft sound!
Wait, isn't compartimos the present tense for 'we share'?
It is! For regular -ir and -ar verbs, the 'we' (nosotros) form is exactly the same in both the present tense and the simple past tense. You have to rely on context clues—like the word ayer (yesterday) at the start of this sentence—to know that it means 'we shared' instead of 'we share'.
Why is 'lo' used here, and why is it placed right in front of compartimos?
Lo is a direct object pronoun meaning 'it'. Here, it replaces un pastel (a masculine noun) so we don't have to repeat the word 'cake'. A key rule to remember is that direct object pronouns usually go immediately before the conjugated verb, which is why it sits right in front of compartimos.
Why does juntos end in an 's'?