"Yesterday I touched a bird."

Translation: Ayer toqué un pájaro.

[junevilleco]

I used "a" un pajaro (sorry, cannot use accents on my laptop...but did in the exercise...the rest of the sentence was correct) and was marked wrong. Why do we not use a personal a with the bird, but must with the cat...same sentence with the cat is marked wrong without the personal a, correct with (al) the personal a....

[rmcgwn]

The difference is definite article vs indefinite article. You will never place an a before un. The personal a would suggest the bird is a pet. If that's the case you are touching a specific bird i.e. The bird. Hope that helps

[nueby]

Was there not a sentence about a girl who heard a un perro in some casa? Then some people were justifying the personal a using the logic that it may have been someone's pet. Then so could this bird.

[JWelshStL]

This is what I do for accents: http://symbolcodes.tlt.psu.edu/accents/codealt.html

[deactivated user]

Super fast reflexes... or an extremely slow bird;)

[borismrodriguez]

"Mommy, is that bird—" No, it's just sleeping honey.

[Furbolg]

Also not a very good conversation-opener

[iskalada]

why do the verb's very letters change in past form here? why not toce/toci?

[rmcgwn]

They are irregular verbs that need to be learned.

[arrotino]

adding to what zzxj said, the change is keep the hard "c" sound. You'll find the same is done with other verbs whose infinitives end in -car and -gar.

[GeninMage]

Lol, yeah.... they're not irregular, they change to keep the sound. Toco hard c sound so toqué ... toce would be pronounced like tose

[timmyshanti]

It happens across all languages. Bring becoming brought, lie turns lay...

[zzxj]

Because, like in English, a c before e or i is pronounced as s.

[soreIIina]

A un pajaro para mi es correcto porque puede ser un animal de mi casa.

[theforestfloor]

Which part of this is 'I'? What would change to say he touched a bird?

[Robin_K]

past tense for he would be 'tocó'

[mortisimago]

And I liked it!

[Flo-n-Noah]

Sounds like a line from a 1970s Carry On film.

[thatssuper1]

Shouldn't una pájara be accepted?

[57flora]

Not a femine noun

[DerrickJac5]

Y ahora tengo la gripe de pajaro :(

[dphairis]

What is wrong with using a pronoun described by "a" and a noun?

[journeyman171]

Couldn't I say "Ayer lo toque un pajaro?"