Question

Ella me explicó que Julián y Clara (llegar) tarde a clase. Yo no (ir) al gimnasio todavía.¿ (entrenarse) ustedes para el partido de ayer? (terminar) la tarea a las seis.

Answer 1

Answer:

Ella me explicó que Julián y Clara habían llegado tarde a clase.

Yo no había ido al gimnasio todavía.

¿Ustedes se habían entrenado para el partido de ayer?

Usted había terminado la tarea a las seis.

Explanation:

In order to complete this exercise you should get familiar with the pluscuamperfecto. Here's how you do it.

1. Ella me explicó que Julián y Clara habían llegado tarde a clase.

In this sentence we have an example of reported speech in Spanish. The reporting verb is explicó and is in the form of pretérito. This means that the verb of the reported speech must follow the rules of sequence of tenses. And what was in the pretérito in direct speech becomes the pluscuamperfecto.

2. Yo no había ido al gimnasio todavía.

There is no context to this sentence but what we do have here is the adverb todavía which indicates that we have to use the negative form of a verb. The verb ir forms the pluscuamperfecto with its participle and the imperfect form of the verb haber. It is the auxiliary verb haber ONLY that should be conjugated. Even though mostly irregular, the pluscuamperfecto of the verb to go is completely perfect.

3. ¿Ustedes se habían entrenado para el partido de ayer?

This time we have to pay attention to the pronominal verb entrenarse. When conjugated, the reflexive pronoun se goes in front of the verb which is regular and takes on the endings of the first group in -AR. It is important to pay attention and use the correct reflexive pronoun as there are 5 of them (me, te, se, nos, vos). Here the pronoun ustedes takes the same pronoun as the third person singular - se.

4. Usted había terminado la tarea a las seis.

Usted is a formal pronoun used to talk to one person (as opposed to ustedes - two or more persons). When it comes to conjugation it is regarded as the third person singular (ustedes being regarded as the third person plural) and the verb takes on the same endings as ella or él.

Happy learning!