Learn Spanish (Spain): La excursión del sábado fue estupenda.

La excursión del sábado fue estupenda.

The Saturday outing was great.

Breakdown of La excursión del sábado fue estupenda.

ser

to be

del

of the / from the / about the (topic)

Questions & Answers about La excursión del sábado fue estupenda.

Why is it La excursión? Is there a rule for words ending in -ión?

Yes! Most Spanish words ending in -ión (like la excursión, la canción, or la televisión) are feminine. That is why we use the feminine article la and why the adjective at the end of the sentence is estupenda instead of estupendo.

Why does the sentence say excursión del sábado instead of putting Saturday first like in English?

In English, you can put a noun before another noun to describe it (like Saturday outing). Spanish does not do this. Instead, you have to use de (of) to link them. So, the Saturday outing must be phrased as the outing of Saturday.

Where does the word del come from in this sentence?

Whenever the preposition de (of/from) is followed directly by the masculine article el (the), they must combine to form the single word del. We need the article here because Spanish uses el before days of the week, so de + el sábado becomes del sábado.

Why use fue (from ser) instead of estuvo (from estar) to say the outing was great?