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El verano pasado hice senderismo en el norte de España.

El verano pasado hice senderismo en el norte de España.
Last summer I went hiking in the north of Spain.
From Lesson 140:Hobbies (el tiempo libre, el ajedrez)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about El verano pasado hice senderismo en el norte de España.

Why does the sentence start with El when the English translation just says "Last summer"?
In Spanish, you usually need a definite article (el, la, los, las) before general time expressions like el verano pasado (last summer) or la semana pasada (last week). You cannot just say verano pasado on its own.
Why is the word order verano pasado instead of pasado verano?
In Spanish, adjectives typically come directly after the noun they describe. Since pasado (past or last) is an adjective describing the noun verano (summer), it must follow the noun.
The translation says "I went hiking", but isn't hice the past tense of "to do"?
Yes, it is! The verb hacer means "to do" or "to make", and hice is the "I" form in the simple past tense. While English uses the verb "to go" for many activities like "go hiking", Spanish often uses hacer. So, you literally say that you "did hiking" (hice senderismo).
Why isn't the word norte capitalized here?
In Spanish, points of the compass like norte (north), sur (south), este (east), and oeste (west) are written with lowercase letters. They are only capitalized if they are part of a proper name, such as Carolina del Norte (North Carolina).

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