A broken promise is a commitment that someone has failed to keep.

The idea

Use romper una promesa to say that someone fails to do what they promised; conjugate romper for the subject.

Examples

  • Marta rompió su promesa de llamar a su abuela.Marta broke her promise to call her grandmother.
  • El alcalde rompió la promesa que hizo a los vecinos.The mayor broke the promise made to the residents.
  • Si cuentas el secreto, romperás nuestra promesa.If you tell the secret, you will break our promise.
  • La empresa rompió una promesa de proteger el bosque.The company broke a promise to protect the forest.
  • No quiero romper la promesa que te hice ayer.I do not want to break the promise I made you yesterday.
  • Los amigos rompieron la promesa de guardar silencio.The friends broke their promise to keep silent.

Read-aloud uses a synthetic Spanish voice available on your device. Voice quality and availability vary; it does not assess your pronunciation.

Watch out

Avoid the invented combination quebrar a una promesa; say romper una promesa.

Try it yourself

  1. Complete the sentence: Ayer Ana ___ su promesa de ayudar. (rompió / romperá)

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    rompió

    rompió places Ana’s action in the past.

  2. Complete the sentence: No quiero ___ la promesa de volver. (romper / romperé)

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    romper

    romper follows quiero as an infinitive.

  3. Complete the sentence: Ellos ___ la promesa que hicieron. (rompieron / rompió)

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    rompieron

    rompieron matches the plural subject.

Use it today

Describe a promise someone broke and explain what happened.