Breakdown of Ayer le traje el texto, pero no la traducción.
no
no / not
pero
but
le
to him / to her / to you (formal) / him (direct object, male person)
traer
to bring
ayer
yesterday
el texto
the text
la traducción
the translation
Questions & Answers about Ayer le traje el texto, pero no la traducción.
Why is the past tense of traer spelled as traje here?
Traer (to bring) is a highly irregular verb in the Pretérito Indefinido (simple past). Its stem changes to traj- for all forms in this tense. Since the speaker is saying 'I brought', we add the irregular 'I' ending -e, making it traje. Other verbs like decir (to say) and conducir (to drive) also use this special -j- stem in the past.
What does le do in this sentence, and why is it placed before the verb?
Le is an indirect object pronoun meaning 'to him', 'to her', or 'to you' (formal). Here it translates to 'him' because you are bringing the text to him. In Spanish, these object pronouns almost always go immediately before the conjugated verb, which is why it comes right before traje.
How do I know that traducción is feminine and needs la?
A very handy rule in Spanish is that almost all nouns ending in -ción (like traducción, canción, or estación) are feminine. Because of this, it uses the feminine word for 'the', which is la.
Why doesn't the second half of the sentence say pero no le traje la traducción?
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