Breakdown of El niño agita la caja antes de envolverla.
el niño
the boy / the child
la
it / her (f)
la caja
the box
antes de
before (+ noun / infinitive)
Questions & Answers about El niño agita la caja antes de envolverla.
Does agita just mean 'to shake'? It looks like the English word 'agitate'.
Yes, agitar is the standard verb for shaking a physical object, like a box, a bottle, or your hands. While it can also mean 'to agitate' (stir up trouble or make someone restless), its most common everyday meaning is simply 'to shake'.
Why does it say antes de envolverla instead of conjugating the verb (like 'before he wraps it')?
In Spanish, when the person doing both actions is the same (the boy shakes it, and the boy wraps it), you use the preposition antes de followed immediately by the infinitive form of the verb (envolver). You only use a conjugated verb (with antes de que) if a different person is doing the second action.
Why is the pronoun la attached to the end of envolver?
La means 'it', referring back to the feminine noun la caja (the box). When a verb is in the infinitive form, direct object pronouns cannot go before the verb; they must be attached directly to the end of it, creating a single word: envolverla.
Is envolver a stem-changing verb?
Yes, it is an o-to-ue stem-changing verb, just like volver. If you were saying 'he wraps the box', you would conjugate it as él envuelve la caja. But because the verb is in its infinitive form here after antes de, the stem does not change.