Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Mi prima quiere un trabajo ecológico porque le preocupa la contaminación del aire en su ciudad. - My cousin wants an ecological job because she is worried about air pollution in her city.

So mi prima means my (female) cousin.
If you were talking about a male cousin, you’d say mi primo quiere… instead.
The possessive mi doesn’t change for gender (it’s the same for masculine and feminine in the singular), but prima/primo does.

Why is it just quiere un trabajo and not quiere tener un trabajo?

Both are possible, but quiere un trabajo is the more natural, shorter way to say she wants a job.

querer + noun → to want (a thing)
- quiere un trabajo = she wants a job
querer + infinitive → to want to do something
- quiere trabajar = she wants to work
- quiere tener un trabajo = she wants to have a job (grammatically fine, but longer and usually unnecessary here)

In this sentence, quiere un trabajo ecológico is the normal, idiomatic way to say she wants an ecological / environmentally friendly job.

What nuance does trabajo ecológico have? Is it like green job in English?

Yes, it’s very close to a green job or an environmentally friendly job.

ecológico in this context suggests:
- related to environmental protection,
- respectful of nature,
- low impact on pollution, resources, etc.

You could also hear:

un trabajo ambiental / medioambiental (more like environmental job)
Informally: un trabajo verde (literally green job; understood but slightly more colloquial and less common in some regions)

trabajo ecológico is widely understood across Latin America.

Why is the adjective after the noun: trabajo ecológico and not ecológico trabajo?

In Spanish, the normal order is:

noun + adjective → trabajo ecológico

Putting the adjective before the noun (ecológico trabajo) is usually wrong or sounds very poetic/marked. Some adjectives commonly appear before the noun (like bueno, malo, gran), but ecológico is not one of those that typically move.

So in standard speech you say un trabajo ecológico, not un ecológico trabajo.

What does le preocupa literally mean? Why use le?

The verb preocupar works like gustar in Spanish:

le preocupa X literally = X worries her/him
Natural English translation = she is worried about X / X worries her

Breakdown:

la contaminación del aire = the subject (the thing doing the worrying)
le = indirect object pronoun (to her)
preocupa = it worries

So le preocupa la contaminación del aire literally is the air pollution worries her.

We use le because we’re talking about mi prima (third person singular, either he or she → le).

Who does le refer to in porque le preocupa…?

In this sentence, le refers to mi prima.

Spanish often omits the explicit phrase a ella because the reference is clear from context:

A mi prima le preocupa la contaminación del aire.
Shortened: Le preocupa la contaminación del aire. (if we already know we’re talking about her)

Key point:

le can mean to him or to her (and also to you formal), so context tells you it’s her cousin here.

Could you also say porque está preocupada por la contaminación del aire? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

porque está preocupada por la contaminación del aire
= because she is worried about air pollution.

Difference in structure:

le preocupa la contaminación
- literally: the pollution worries her
- focuses on the cause acting on her
está preocupada por la contaminación
- literally: she is worried about the pollution
- focuses more on her emotional state

In meaning, they’re very close; le preocupa… is slightly more compact and very natural in Spanish.

Why is it la contaminación del aire with articles, when in English we just say air pollution?

Spanish uses definite articles much more than English, especially with abstract or general nouns.

la contaminación del aire
literally: the contamination of the air

In English, we usually drop the article in this kind of general expression (air pollution), but in Spanish:

la contaminación (the pollution/contamination)
del aire = de + el aire → of the air

So la contaminación del aire is the normal way to say air pollution in a general sense.

Why is it en su ciudad and not de su ciudad?

Because the idea is in her city, not of her city.

en = in, on, at
- en su ciudad = in her city
de = of, from
- la contaminación de su ciudad = the pollution of her city / her city’s pollution

Both could be used, but they say slightly different things:

la contaminación del aire en su ciudad
→ air pollution in the place where she lives
la contaminación del aire de su ciudad
→ emphasizes that the city itself is the possessor/owner of that air pollution

The original sentence simply locates the problem in her city, so en is the natural choice.

What exactly can su mean in en su ciudad?

su is ambiguous in Spanish; in the singular it can mean:

his city
her city
your city (formal usted)

In the plural it can mean:

their city
your city (plural ustedes in Latin America)

Here, context tells us it’s her city (referring to mi prima).
If you need to be very clear, you can say:

en la ciudad de ella = in her city
en la ciudad de él = in his city

What’s the difference between porque and por qué? Why is porque used here?

porque (one word) = because
- introduces the reason:
  - No sale porque está cansada. = She doesn’t go out because she’s tired.
por qué (two words, with an accent) = why
- used in questions:
  - ¿Por qué no sale? = Why doesn’t she go out?

In the sentence Mi prima quiere un trabajo ecológico porque le preocupa…, we are giving a reason (because), not asking a question (why), so we must use porque (one word).