Breakdown of No tradujimos la frase al nuevo idioma.
nuevo
new / another, different (before the noun)
no
no / not
al
to the (m)
traducir
to translate
Questions & Answers about No tradujimos la frase al nuevo idioma.
Why is the verb spelled tradujimos with a "j"?
Why does the sentence use al to mean "into the"?
When talking about translating "into" a language, Spanish uses the preposition a (to). Because the word for language (idioma) is masculine, it uses the article el. The preposition a and the article el must always combine into the contraction al.
Wait, doesn't idioma end in an "a"? Why is it masculine here?
Even though idioma ends in -a, it is actually a masculine word. This is a common exception for Spanish words ending in -ma that come from Greek roots, similar to el problema and el tema. That is why it uses el and forms the contraction al.
Could we put nuevo after idioma, saying al idioma nuevo instead?