Breakdown of El verano pasado nos alojamos cerca del mar.
del
of the / from the / about the (topic)
nos
to us / ourselves / us (direct object)
el verano
the summer
el mar
the sea
cerca
near / nearby
pasado
past
alojarse
to stay (at a hotel)
Questions & Answers about El verano pasado nos alojamos cerca del mar.
Why do we say "El verano pasado" when English just says "Last summer"?
In Spanish, you usually need to use the definite article (el or la) when talking about specific days, seasons, or dates in the past or future. So "last summer" translates literally as "the last summer" (el verano pasado).
Doesn't "alojamos" mean "we stay" in the present tense?
Why is the word "nos" used before "alojamos"?
The verb for staying somewhere (like a hotel or a holiday home) is alojarse, which is a reflexive verb. The nos is the reflexive pronoun that goes with the "we" form, so it literally translates to something like "we accommodated ourselves".
Why does the sentence use "del" instead of "de el" for "of the"?
In Spanish, whenever the word de (of/from) is directly followed by the masculine word for "the" (el), they must combine into the single contraction del. Since the phrase for "near" is cerca de, and sea is masculine (el mar), it becomes cerca del mar.
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