L'últim tren arriba amb retard.

to arrive

Breakdown of L'últim tren arriba amb retard.

• el tren: the train
• amb retard: late
• últim: last

Questions & Answers about L'últim tren arriba amb retard.

Why is it L'últim and not just últim?

Because Catalan usually uses the definite article where English often uses the. Here, l' is the shortened form of el before a vowel:

• el últim tren → l'últim tren

So L'últim tren means the last train.

What does l' stand for?

L' is the contracted form of the singular definite article:

• el before a masculine noun
• la before a feminine noun

When the next word begins with a vowel or silent h, the article is often shortened:

• el últim → l'últim
• la hora → l'hora

In this sentence, it comes from el, because tren is masculine.

Why is últim before tren?

In Catalan, adjectives can come before or after the noun, depending on the adjective and the meaning. Últim commonly comes before the noun when it means last in an ordered series:

• l'últim tren = the last train

This is normal and natural word order in Catalan.