See Animals in Ecuador in Spanish

Quick Answer

¡Hola!Learn how to see animals in Ecuador in Spanish in this article and the lessons above! Specifically, learn how to do the following in Spanish:

• use common vocabulary related to animals and nature

• use the preterite to talk about experiences in the past

• use qué exclamations in converations

Vocabulary

Let's start off with the vocab words in these lessons!

Adjectives

Spanish	English
descarado	sassy
ecuatoriano	Ecuadorian
gracioso	funny
penúltimo	second-to-last
protegido	protected

examples
Fuimos a un parque nacional ecuatoriano. We went to an Ecuadorian national park.
Es el área protegida más grande del país. It's the biggest protected area in the country.
Estuvimos allí la penúltima semana de julio. We were there the second-to-last week of July.

Noun-Adjective Agreement with Nouns with Irregular Gender

El área protegida? Why do we use el and a feminine adjective here?

Words beginning with stressed a, such as área, use the article el even though they are feminine. When using these nouns with an adjective, the adjective needs to be in the feminine form.

examples
Es el área protegida más grande del país. It's the biggest protected area in the country.

examples

Es el área protegida más grande del país.

It's the biggest protected area in the country.

Adverbs

Spanish	English
frecuentemente	often, frequently
jamás	never
nunca	never
recientemente	recently
simplemente	simply

examples
Recientemente viajamos a Ecuador. We recently traveled to Ecuador.
Simplemente me lo sacó del bolso. It simply took it out of my bag.
Sí, pero jamás se nos acercaron. Yes, but they never got close to us.

Nouns

Spanish	English
el arbusto	shrub
el área	area
el ave	bird
la biodiversidad	biodiversity
el caimán	alligator
el/la capibara	capybara
el castor	beaver
el cielo	sky
el cocodrilo	crocodile
Ecuador	Ecuador
la especie	species
el incidente	incident
el jaguar	jaguar
el loro	parrot
el mono	monkey
el pantano	marsh
el puma	puma
el roedor	rodent
la tortuga	turtle
Yasuní	Yasuni

The word capibara may be considered a masculine noun (el capibara) or a feminine noun (la capibara) depending on the country of origin of the speaker.

examples
¿Hay más de setecientas especies de arbustos? Are there more than seven hundred species of shrubs?
Es el área protegida más grande del país. It's the biggest protected area in the country.
Hay más de seiscientas especies de aves. There are more than six hundred species of birds.

What’s Yasuní?

Yasuni National Park is located in eastern Ecuador. It’s reportedly one of the most biodiverse places on Earth!

Noun Phrase

Spanish	English
el parque nacional	national park

examples
Fuimos a un parque nacional ecuatoriano. We went to an Ecuadorian national park.

Numbers

Spanish	English
seiscientos	six hundred
setecientos	seven hundred

examples
Hay más de seiscientas especies de aves. There are more than six hundred species of birds.
¿Hay más de setecientas especies de arbustos? Are there more than seven hundred species of shrubs?

Prepositional Phrases

Spanish	English
al momento	immediately
al parecer	apparently
de hecho	in fact

examples
Al momento, se lo dio a mi madre. It immediately gave it to my mom.
Al parecer, no se ven frecuentemente. Apparently, they're not seen often.
De hecho, un mono me quitó el teléfono. In fact, a monkey took my phone off me.

Pronoun

Spanish	English
nada	nothing, anything

examples
Nunca vi nada igual. I'd never seen anything like it.

Double Negatives in Spanish

You might be wondering if Nunca vi nada igual. is correct. After all, doesn’t it contain a double negative?! It does, and that’s OK. You’ll often see sentences with two negative words in them in Spanish.

Verbs

In this skill, you learn the following verbs!

Acercarse

Acercarse(to get close to) is an -ar reflexive verb with an irregular yo form in the preterite.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	me acerqué	I got close to
tú	te acercaste	you got close to	informal singular you
vos	te acercaste	you got close to	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	se acercó	he, she got close to
usted	se acercó	you got close to	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	nos acercamos	we got close to
vosotros, vosotras	os acercasteis	you got close to	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	se acercaron	they got close to
ustedes	se acercaron	you got close to	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Encantar

Encantar(to love) is an -ar verb that is regular in the preterite.
Note that when we use encantar to mean to love, it behaves like gustar.

With verbs like gustar, the subject of the sentence is the thing being liked, while the thing doing the liking is expressed via an indirect object.

This table refers to loving a singular thing. If the thing that you loved was plural, use encantaron.

Conjugation	Translation	Notes
me encantó	I loved
te encantó	you loved	informal singular you
le encantó	he, she loved
le encantó	you loved	formal singular you
nos encantó	we loved
os encantó	you loved	informal plural you (in Spain)
les encantó	they loved
les encantó	you loved	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Estar

Estar(to be) is a stem-changing verb in the preterite. That means that its "stem," esta, changes to estuv in all forms.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	estuve	I was
tú	estuviste	you were	informal singular you
vos	estuviste	you were	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	estuvo	he, she was
usted	estuvo	you were	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	estuvimos	we were
vosotros, vosotras	estuvisteis	you were	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	estuvieron	they were
ustedes	estuvieron	you were	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Fascinar

Fascinar(to fascinate) is an -ar verb that is regular in the preterite.
Note that when we use fascinar to mean to fascinate, it behaves like gustar.

With verbs like gustar, the subject of the sentence is the thing being liked, while the thing doing the liking is expressed via an indirect object.

This table refers to being fascinated by a singular thing. If the thing that fascinated you was plural, use fascinaron.

Conjugation	Translation	Notes
me fascinó	it fascinated me
te fascinó	it fascinated you	informal singular you
le fascinó	it fascinated him, her
le fascinó	it fascinated you	formal singular you
nos fascinó	it fascinated us
os fascinó	it fascinated you	informal plural you (in Spain)
les fascinó	it fascinated them
les fascinó	it fascinated you	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Gustar

Gustar(to like) is an irregular verb in the preterite.

With verbs like gustar, the subject of the sentence is the thing being liked, while the thing doing the liking is expressed via an indirect object.

This table refers to liking a singular thing. If the thing that was liked was plural, use gustaron.

Conjugation	Translation	Notes
me gustó	I liked
te gustó	you liked	informal singular you
le gustó	he, she liked
le gustó	you liked	formal singular you
nos gustó	we liked
os gustó	you liked	informal plural you (in Spain)
les gustó	they liked
les gustó	you liked	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Ir

Ir(to go) is an irregular verb in the preterite.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	fui	I went
tú	fuiste	you went	informal singular you
vos	fuiste	you went	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	fue	he, she went
usted	fue	you went	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	fuimos	we went
vosotros, vosotras	fuisteis	you went	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	fueron	they went
ustedes	fueron	you went	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Note that none of the forms of the verb ir take an accent in the preterite.

Quitar

Quitar(to take) is an -ar verb that is regular in the preterite.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	quité	I took
tú	quitaste	you took	informal singular you
vos	quitaste	you took	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	quitó	he, she took
usted	quitó	you took	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	quitamos	we took
vosotros, vosotras	quitasteis	you took	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	quitaron	they took
ustedes	quitaron	you took	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Sacar

Sacar(to take [out]) is an -ar verb with an irregular yo form in the preterite.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	saqué	I took out
tú	sacaste	you took out	informal singular you
vos	sacaste	you took out	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	sacó	he, she took out
usted	sacó	you took out	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	sacamos	we took out
vosotros, vosotras	sacasteis	you took out	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	sacaron	they took out
ustedes	sacaron	you took out	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Ver

Ver(to see) is an irregular verb in the preterite.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	vi	I saw
tú	viste	you saw	informal singular you
vos	viste	you saw	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	vio	he, she saw
usted	vio	you saw	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	vimos	we saw
vosotros, vosotras	visteis	you saw	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	vieron	they saw
ustedes	vieron	you saw	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Note that none of the forms of the verb ver take an accent in the preterite.

Viajar

Viajar(to travel) is an -ar verb that is regular in the preterite.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	viajé	I traveled
tú	viajaste	you traveled	informal singular you
vos	viajaste	you traveled	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	viajó	he, she traveled
usted	viajó	you traveled	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	viajamos	we traveled
vosotros, vosotras	viajasteis	you traveled	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	viajaron	they traveled
ustedes	viajaron	you traveled	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

The Preterite

Regular Spanish Preterite Forms

There are only two sets of endings for regular preterite verbs, one for -ar verbs and one for both -er and -ir verbs. To conjugate a regular verb in the preterite tense, simply remove the infinitive ending (-ar, -er, or -ir) and add the preterite ending that matches the subject. Check out the table of regular preterite endings below.

Subject	-ar Verbs	-er and -ir Verbs
yo	-é	-í
tú	-aste	-iste
él, ella, usted	-ó	-ió
nosotros	-amos	-imos
vosotros	-asteis	-isteis
ellos, ellas, ustedes	-aron	-ieron

Irregular and Stem-Changing Verbs in the Preterite

Note that some verbs, like many of those we saw in this lesson, are irregular or stem-changing in the preterite! Learn more about irregular verbs, spelling changes, and stem-changing preterite verbs in this article.

When Do We Use the Preterite?

Times in the Past

We use the preterite to describe actions completed at a point in the past. For example, we often use the preterite with the following phrases:

al momento

la penúltima semana de julio

recientemente

una vez

un día

Pronoun Order

In this lesson, we see a sentence in which a direct and an indirect object pronoun are used together. When direct and indirect object pronouns are used together in a sentence, the indirect object pronoun comes before the direct object pronoun. Also, it’s important to remember that the indirect object pronouns le and les change to se when followed by the direct object pronouns lo, la, los and las. Let’s take a look at a sentence with both an indirect and a direct pronoun: