Sometidos--not in either dictionary

Question

This is not in the SD dictionary or the RAE...nonetheless, it's in my textbook and part of my homework tonight... "sometidos"

Les seguían los curacas, nobles do otros pueblos sometidos, ahora governadores de familias en un número que oscilaba entre cien y diez mil.

Answer 1

The word someter is conjugated exactly like meter: sometido, metido.

The initial "so-" was originally "sub-", meaning below or under.

Answer 2

It's the past participle of someter being used as an adjective. Sorry. We're not supposed to do other people's homework for them.

:-) - Echoline, Dec 1, 2010

Thank you. It didn't seem to be refering to people who had been conquered, so I didn't recognize it. - Echoline, Dec 1, 2010

oh, so could the two words "pueblos sometidos" simply be translated as "subjects"? - Echoline, Dec 1, 2010

That's how I read it - KevinB, Dec 1, 2010

Answer 3

"sometidos" is simply the plural of "sometido". I have yet to see a dictionary that included separate entries for plurals.

The dictionary of this site actually has an entry for "sometido" (which points out that it the past participle of "someter". In fact, I had expected that I would have needed to know as much and and to have looked up "someter" (the dictionary appears to have become more sophisticated).

Dictionaries, in general, tend to assume a modicum of knowledge about the different forms of a word (plurals, present/past participles, etc.) This has the advantage of avoiding a huge amount of redundancy for those with a reasonable familiarity with the mechanics of the language but complicates life for the "rank beginner".