The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
The correct answer is escondió.
The sentence to complete is “La maestra ______ el mapa,” which translates to “The teacher ______ the map.” To choose the correct word, we must identify the subject of the sentence and then find the verb form that correctly matches it in person, number, and tense.
The subject of this sentence is “La maestra” (The teacher). In Spanish grammar, “La maestra” is a third-person singular subject, equivalent to the pronoun “ella” (she). Therefore, the verb that fills the blank must also be in the third-person singular form. The options provided are all forms of the verb “esconder,” which means “to hide.” The context implies a completed action in the past, so we are looking for a preterite tense conjugation.
Let’s analyze the options:
- esconder: This is the infinitive form of the verb, meaning “to hide.” Infinitives cannot serve as the main verb of a sentence without an auxiliary verb. Using it would create the grammatically incorrect sentence “The teacher to hide the map.”
- escondió: This is the third-person singular (él, ella, usted) preterite conjugation of “esconder.” This form perfectly matches the subject “La maestra.” The resulting sentence, “La maestra escondió el mapa,” translates to “The teacher hid the map,” which is grammatically correct and makes complete sense.
- escondiste: This is the second-person singular informal (tú) preterite conjugation, meaning “(you) hid.” This does not match the third-person subject “La maestra.”
- escondimos: This is the first-person plural (nosotros/nosotras) preterite conjugation, meaning “(we) hid.” This also does not match the singular subject “La maestra.”
Based on this analysis of subject-verb agreement, “escondió” is the only option that correctly conjugates the verb “esconder” to match the third-person singular subject “La maestra” in the preterite tense.
