Breakdown of Leo un poco antes de dormir.
leer
to read
dormir
to sleep
poco
little / not much / a little
antes de
before (+ noun / infinitive)
Questions & Answers about Leo un poco antes de dormir.
Why does this use the infinitive dormir instead of durmiendo for "sleeping"?
In Spanish, whenever a verb comes immediately after a preposition like de, you must use the infinitive form (the unchanged dictionary form, like dormir). English uses the "-ing" form for this, which makes it an easy trap to fall into! You should never use the Spanish "-ing" form (-ando or -iendo) right after a preposition.
Could I just say "antes dormir" without the "de"?
No, to say "before doing something," you must use the full phrase antes de. Antes by itself usually just means "earlier" or "beforehand" (for example: lo hice antes - I did it earlier).
Does "un poco" ever change to "una poca" depending on what I am reading?
Why isn't the word "yo" (I) at the start of the sentence?
The "-o" ending on the verb leo already makes it perfectly clear that "I" am the one reading. In Spanish, it is very natural to drop the subject pronoun. Adding yo here is only necessary if you want to emphasize that you read, in contrast to someone else doing something different.
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