Questions & Answers about Ayer vi la apuesta.
Why doesn't vi have an accent mark?
You might expect an accent because regular preterite verbs usually end in an accented -í for the "yo" form (like comí). However, ver is irregular. Because vi is only one syllable, it doesn't take an accent mark. In Spanish, one-syllable words don't get accents unless they need to be distinguished from another word with the exact same spelling.
Why do we use the preterite vi here instead of the imperfect veía?
The word ayer (yesterday) gives us a specific, closed timeframe. The preterite tense (vi) is used for completed, one-time actions in the past. Using the imperfect (veía) here would sound incomplete, similar to saying "Yesterday I was seeing the bet..." and leaving the listener waiting for the rest of the story.
What verb is the noun apuesta related to?
It comes from the verb apostar, which means to bet or to wager. It is an o-to-ue stem-changing verb in the present tense, which is why the noun form has that same -ue- spelling. For example, "I bet" translates to yo apuesto.
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