empezaste

Empezaste is the second-person singular preterite form of the Spanish verb empezar, meaning you began or you started. It is used with the informal address tú, and in some dialects with voseo to mean the same: you started.

Etymology and form: empezar comes from Latin incipere, with a history that passed through Old Spanish forms such as empeçar. In the pretérito perfecto simple, the forms are yo empecé, tú empezaste, él/ella/usted empezó, nosotros empezamos, vosotros empezasteis, ellos empezaron. The yo form uses empecé with a spelling change to preserve the /k/ sound, while the other forms retain the empe- stem with the -z- in the tú, él, and ellos forms.

Usage: Empezaste marks a completed action in the past. It is commonly followed by an infinitive introduced by a or by a direct object, for example: “Empezaste a estudiar español” (you began studying Spanish) or “Empezaste una nueva carrera” (you started a new career). It can also appear in questions or subordinate clauses to set a past scene.

Examples:

- Ayer, empezaste a leer ese libro.

- ¿Empezaste ya a trabajar en el informe?

See also: empezar, its other tenses and moods, and regional variations such as personas formality and voseo where applicable.