Breakdown of Los niños salieron corriendo del colegio.
el niño
the boy / the child
del
of the / from the / about the (topic)
salir
to go out, to leave / to appear, to come out (on the body)
correr
to run
Questions & Answers about Los niños salieron corriendo del colegio.
Why does the Spanish say salieron corriendo instead of translating "ran out" directly?
In English, we usually use a verb for the action (ran) and a preposition for the direction (out). Spanish often does the opposite: it uses a verb for the direction (salieron, meaning they exited) and adds a gerund, the "-ing" form (corriendo, meaning running), to show how they did it. Literally, it translates to "The children exited running."
Does colegio mean "college" here?
No, colegio is a false friend! In Spain, un colegio (or just el cole) refers to a primary or middle school. If you want to talk about a college or university, you would use la universidad.
Why is salieron in the preterite tense here instead of the imperfect (salían)?
Why do we use del before colegio?
The verb salir (to leave or exit) is paired with the preposition de (from) to show where someone is leaving from. When de is followed by the masculine article el, they combine into the contraction del to make pronunciation smoother.