Breakdown of Teníamos un huerto al lado de la casa y cultivábamos tomates.
y
and
la casa
the house / home (also "at home")
un
a, an, some
tener
to have
el tomate
the tomato
al lado de
next to
el huerto
the vegetable patch
cultivar
to grow (crops, plants)
Questions & Answers about Teníamos un huerto al lado de la casa y cultivábamos tomates.
Why are we using the imperfect tense (teníamos, cultivábamos) instead of the simple past here?
Why does cultivábamos have an accent mark? Do all verbs in this tense get one?
For regular -ar verbs in the imperfect tense (like cultivar), only the nosotros (we) form gets an accent mark: cultivábamos. This is to keep the spoken stress on the correct syllable. Notice that for -er and -ir verbs like tener, every imperfect form gets an accent on the i, which is why we also see one in teníamos.
Could I use jardín instead of huerto for a garden?
Not if you are growing tomatoes! While English speakers often use 'garden' for both, in Spanish, a jardín is a decorative garden with flowers or grass. A huerto is specifically a vegetable patch or an orchard where you grow food.
How exactly does the phrase al lado de work?
Al lado de is a very common fixed phrase meaning 'next to' or 'beside'. It literally translates to 'at the side of'. Remember that al is the mandatory contraction of the preposition a and the article el. You will use this exact chunk of words constantly when describing where things are located.
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