Breakdown of ¿Ya habías comprado el marco para el cartel?
para
for / in order to (+ infinitive) / by (a deadline)
comprar
to buy
haber
to have (auxiliary)
ya
already
Questions & Answers about ¿Ya habías comprado el marco para el cartel?
Can I put 'ya' between 'habías' and 'comprado' just like we do in English ('had already bought')?
No, in Spanish you can never separate the two parts of a compound verb. The helping verb habías and the past participle comprado must stay glued together. The word ya usually goes right before the conjugated verb, which is why we say Ya habías comprado.
Why do we use 'habías comprado' here instead of the simple past 'compraste'?
habías comprado is the past perfect tense. It is used for an action that happened before another past action. By asking this, the speaker wants to know if the frame was already bought before some other past event occurred, like before they arrived at the shop.
Why do we use 'para' instead of 'por' in 'para el cartel'?
Does 'cartel' mean the same thing as it does in English?
Not usually! While it can refer to an illegal organization in the news, in everyday Spanish un cartel simply means a poster, a sign, or a public notice.