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I'm learning Spanish and I'm puzzled by this exam question which I'm supposed to render in Spanish:

This store never closes in the afternoon.

I would think the translation would be:

Esta tienda nunca es cerrada en la tarde

But apparently the exam wanted "cierra" instead of "cerrada". I'm not familiar with "cierra" - is it just an odd conjugation of "cerrar" or a completely separate word?

user1071914
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    In common with many other verbs cerrar changes the stem slightly in various parts of its conjugation. https://www.spanishdict.com/guide/stem-changing-verbs – mdewey Apr 14 '23 at 09:24

3 Answers3

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Esta tienda nunca 'cierra' por la tarde
This store never 'closes' in the afternoon

Just as in its English counterpart, here 'cierra' is using the conjugation of the verb cerrar (in the third person singular simple present tense that corresponds)

For using the present participle 'cerrada' you may hear

Esta tienda nunca está 'cerrada' por la tarde
This store is never 'closed' in the afternoon

ipp
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    +1 but I think that "se encuentra" is just introducing extra unnecessary information in this case, making it harder to see the paralelism between OP's sentence and the equivalent Spanish version. – RubioRic Apr 14 '23 at 09:37
  • Thank you very much! Conjugations of Spanish verbs are more complex than English (it seems so to me anyway.) Maybe I need to upgrade my Spanish-English dictionary. – user1071914 Apr 14 '23 at 19:34
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I think that @ipp answer is totally correct but I would like to explain more clearly your sentences both in Spanish and in English for clarity.

[EN] This store never closes in the afternoon.
[ES] Esta tienda nunca cierra por la tarde

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[EN] This store is never closed in the afternoon.
[ES] Esta tienda nunca está cerrada por la tarde

You can translate both sentences almost word for word. There is a slight difference in the idiomatic position of never/nunca. Both pairs of sentences transmit the same meaning but here you can see the reason of your answer not being correct: you introduced a verb that was not present in the original sentence: es (to be / ser o estar). Also in that specific case, we use verb "estar" instead of "ser".

RubioRic
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*Esta tienda nunca es cerrada en la tarde*

The reason the above answer is not correct, is basically, because your sentence is in past tense (cerrada = past tense of cerrar). And, if you pay attention to the question, the verb is not in past tense.

So, the correct answer is:

Esta tienda no cierra por la tarde

Honestly, that response is accepted BUT, not is used in real life (at least among native Spanish speakers). What you would see if you travel to latin America is the following:

No cerramos por la tarde. 
No cerramos al mediodía. 
Estamos abiertos por la tarde. 
Estamos abiertos al mediodía. 
Estamos abiertos por la noche.
Carlos
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    I am a native Spanish speaker and I use that sentence ("Esta tienda no cierra por la tarde") just fine... it is the most common way to say that a shop (not my shop) does not close in the afternoon. – wimi Apr 13 '23 at 21:15