Breakdown of ¿Le diste la entrada al mago?
a
to
le
to him / to her / to you (formal) / him (direct object, male person)
dar
to give
la entrada
the ticket (admission, event)
el mago
the magician
Questions & Answers about ¿Le diste la entrada al mago?
Why does dar (an -ar verb) use the ending -iste in diste?
Dar is highly irregular in the Pretérito Indefinido (simple past tense). Even though it ends in -ar, it takes the endings normally used for -er and -ir verbs. That is why you say diste instead of 'daste'.
Why is the word Le at the start of the sentence if we already specify al mago at the end?
In Spanish, when you have an indirect object like al mago (to the magician), it is very common and usually required to also include the matching indirect object pronoun le (to him) in the same sentence. It acts as a helpful signpost showing who is receiving the action.
I thought 'ticket' was billete. Why use entrada here?
It depends on what the ticket is for! In Spain, billete is typically used for transport (like a train or plane ticket) or a paper banknote. Entrada literally means 'entrance' and is used for admission tickets to events, like a magic show, concert, or movie.
Why does the sentence use al instead of a el before mago?
Whenever the preposition a (to) is followed directly by the masculine word for 'the', which is el, they must merge into the contraction al. You will never see 'a el' written as two separate words in this context.
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