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Ayer por poco vuelco la tetera de mi abuela.

Ayer por poco vuelco la tetera de mi abuela.
Yesterday I almost knocked over my grandmother's teapot.
From Lesson 526:Averted events (por poco)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Ayer por poco vuelco la tetera de mi abuela.

Why is vuelco in the present tense when the sentence starts with Ayer?
This is the core of our current lesson! When you use por poco to describe an action that almost happened in the past but was prevented, you use the present indicative tense. So, despite the word Ayer, por poco vuelco means I almost knocked over.
Could I use the past tense here and say por poco volqué?
While you might hear some native speakers use the preterite tense with por poco, standard Spanish grammar dictates using the present indicative. Sticking to por poco vuelco is the most natural and grammatically correct way to say this in Spain.
If I wanted to use casi instead of por poco, would the tense stay the same?
No, the tense would change. If you swap por poco for casi (which also means almost), you must match the tense to the time frame. Since it happened yesterday, you would use the preterite: Ayer casi volqué la tetera. The use of the present tense for a past event is a special quirk of por poco.
What is the infinitive of vuelco, and why is it spelled with a ue?
The infinitive is volcar, meaning to knock over, tip over, or overturn. It is an o to ue stem-changing verb, which is why the root changes in the present tense yo form to become vuelco.

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