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Llegamos al aeropuerto muy temprano para evitar el tráfico.

Llegamos al aeropuerto muy temprano para evitar el tráfico.
We arrived at the airport very early to avoid traffic.
FromLesson 29inHardcore Spanish (Latin America)
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Questions & Answers about Llegamos al aeropuerto muy temprano para evitar el tráfico.

What does llegamos mean, and why is it in the preterite tense?
Llegamos is the first-person-plural form of llegar in the preterite tense, meaning “we arrived.” You use the preterite to describe a completed action in the past—here, the moment you got to the airport is finished, so you say llegamos.
Why do we say al aeropuerto instead of a el aeropuerto?
In Spanish, the preposition a (“to”) and the masculine singular article el (“the”) always contract into al. So instead of a el aeropuerto you must say al aeropuerto.
Could we place muy temprano somewhere else in the sentence? For example, Llegamos muy temprano al aeropuerto?

Yes. Spanish word order is fairly flexible, so you can say either:
• Llegamos al aeropuerto muy temprano para evitar el tráfico.
• Llegamos muy temprano al aeropuerto para evitar el tráfico.
Both mean exactly the same: “We arrived at the airport very early to avoid traffic.”

Why do we use muy temprano and not just temprano?
Temprano by itself means “early,” but adding muy (“very”) emphasizes how early you were. If you said llegamos temprano, it would be “we arrived early,” whereas llegamos muy temprano is “we arrived very early,” stressing you got there well before your flight or expected time.
Why is it para evitar and not por evitar?

Para expresses purpose or intention (“in order to…”). Here you’re stating your reason for arriving early: para evitar el tráfico (“in order to avoid traffic”).
Using por in that spot would change the meaning or sound ungrammatical—you’d need a different construction (e.g., por el tráfico, meaning “because of traffic,” but that doesn’t express your goal).

What exactly does tráfico refer to here; can I use other words for “traffic”?

Tráfico generally means road traffic or congestion. In Latin America you might also hear:
• congestión (more formal)
• embotellamiento (literally “bottling up,” i.e. a traffic jam)
You could say para evitar la congestión or para evitar embotellamientos, but tráfico is perfectly common and understood.

How do you pronounce llegamos and tráfico?

• llegamos: /yeh-ˈga-mos/ (the double ll in most of Latin America sounds like an English “y,” so “yeh‐GAH‐mos”).
• tráfico: /ˈtra-fi-ko/ (stress on the first syllable; the accent mark indicates the “TRA” is stressed).

Could I rephrase the sentence using a different structure, like Llegamos al aeropuerto con tiempo?

Yes. If you say Llegamos al aeropuerto con tiempo it means “We arrived at the airport with time to spare.” You’d then need to add why:
• Llegamos al aeropuerto con tiempo para evitar el tráfico.
or simply drop the purpose if it’s clear from context. Both are natural ways to convey the same idea.

More from this lesson

el aeropuertoel vueloBogotáAhora vivo en Bogotá.sufrirÉl sufre estrés cuando trabaja mucho.el retrasoEl vuelo a Bogotá sufrió un retraso de dos horas.
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