Breakdown of El entrenador sustituyó al portero en el minuto ochenta.
en
in / on / by (means of transport) / about (after pensar)
al
personal a + the (m)
ochenta
eighty
el minuto
the minute
el portero
the goalkeeper (football)
el entrenador
the coach
sustituir
to substitute, to stand in for
Questions & Answers about El entrenador sustituyó al portero en el minuto ochenta.
Does sustituyó al portero mean the goalkeeper was put into the game, or taken out?
It means the goalkeeper was taken out. In Spanish, sustituir a alguien means to replace someone. If you want to say who was put into the game, you would use the preposition por, for example: sustituyó al portero por un jugador joven (he replaced the goalkeeper with a young player).
Why is the verb spelled sustituyó with a 'y' instead of an 'i'?
The English translation says 'eightieth minute', so why does the Spanish use the normal number ochenta instead of an ordinal number?
In Spanish, ordinal numbers (like first, second, third) are rarely used in everyday speech after the number ten. Instead of using the complicated word for eightieth (octogésimo), native speakers simply use the noun followed by the normal cardinal number, saying el minuto ochenta (the minute eighty).
Why is it al portero and not just el portero?
The word al is a mandatory contraction of the preposition a and the article el. Because the goalkeeper (el portero) is a person and acts as the direct object being replaced by the coach, Spanish grammar requires the 'personal a' to be placed right before it.
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