Breakdown of El niño mintió y puso una excusa muy mala.
el niño
the boy / the child
y
and
malo
bad
un
a, an, some
muy
very
poner
to put / to set (the table) / to make (an excuse) / to give, to impose (a fine, a penalty)
mentir
to lie
la excusa
the excuse
Questions & Answers about El niño mintió y puso una excusa muy mala.
Why is it mintió and not mentió?
The verb is mentir (to lie). In the simple past tense, some -ir verbs have a stem change, but only in the third person (he/she/it and they). The e changes to an i, making it mintió for the boy. If you were talking about yourself, it would be mentí with no stem change.
Why does the sentence use puso to mean made? Shouldn't it be a form of hacer?
In English we make an excuse, but the set phrase in Spanish uses the verb poner (to put). You literally put an excuse (poner una excusa). puso is the he/she/it past tense form of poner.
Is puso an irregular verb?
Why is muy mala placed at the very end of the sentence?
In Spanish, descriptive adjectives like mala (bad) almost always go after the noun they describe. Because excusa is a feminine noun, the adjective takes the feminine form mala. The word muy (very) simply stays right in front of the adjective it modifies.
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