El hombre casado llegó tarde.

In Spanish, singular countable nouns usually need an article or another determiner, just like in English you normally say the man or a man, not just man.

So el hombre casado means the married man.

If you said just hombre casado, it would usually sound incomplete unless it appeared in a special context like a headline, label, or dictionary entry.

In Spanish, most descriptive adjectives normally come after the noun.

So:

• el hombre casado = the married man

This is the most natural order in ordinary Spanish. Putting an adjective before the noun is possible in some cases, but it often changes the tone, emphasis, or meaning. With casado, the normal position here is after the noun.

Here, casado is functioning as an adjective describing hombre.

It comes from the verb casar(se), but in this sentence it behaves like an adjective meaning married.

That is why it agrees with the noun:

• el hombre casado
• la mujer casada
• los hombres casados
• las mujeres casadas

So even though it looks like a past participle, in this sentence its job is adjectival.

Llegó is the preterite form, used here for a completed action in the past: he arrived late.

• llegó = he arrived

A learner often compares it with these:

• llegaba = he was arriving / he used to arrive
  This would sound more ongoing, habitual, or background-like.
• ha llegado = he has arrived
  In Spain, this tense is often used for recent past connected to the present, but llegó is still very common for a simple completed event.

So llegó tarde presents the arrival as a finished past action.

The accent mark shows both stress and helps distinguish the tense/form.

• llegó = he/she/it arrived or you arrived (formal usted)
• llego = I arrive

So the accent is important because it changes the meaning and the verb form.

It also tells you the stress falls on the last syllable: lle-GÓ.

Here, tarde works like an adverb, modifying the verb llegó.

• llegó tarde = arrived late

It does not change form:

• llegó tarde
• llegaron tarde

That is different from a normal adjective, which would agree in gender and number.

Also, don’t confuse this tarde meaning late with the noun la tarde, which means afternoon. They are the same word form, but the grammar and meaning are different.

Spanish often does not need an extra word like was where English might use one in certain structures.

In this sentence, the main verb is llegó = arrived. The sentence is simply:

• The married man arrived late.

There is no need for was because casado is just describing hombre, not forming a separate verb phrase.

Compare:

• El hombre casado llegó tarde. = The married man arrived late.
• El hombre estaba casado. = The man was married.

In the second sentence, estaba is needed because was married is the main idea.

Yes, but it means something slightly different in style and structure.

• El hombre casado llegó tarde. = the married man arrived late
• El hombre que está casado llegó tarde. = the man who is married arrived late

The version with casado is shorter and more natural if you are simply describing the man. The version with que está casado is more explicit and sounds heavier, and it may suggest extra contrast or emphasis.

So in most ordinary situations, el hombre casado is the better choice.

Yes, the h in hombre is silent.

A rough pronunciation is:

• OM-bre

In standard Peninsular Spanish:

• hombre ≈ OM-breh
• llegó ≈ ye-GO in many areas, though the exact sound of ll can vary
• tarde ≈ TAR-deh

Also, in Spain the d in tarde is usually softer than an English d.

Not normally in this sentence.

Spanish uses the definite article more often than English in some cases, but with a singular countable noun like hombre, you still generally need a determiner:

• el hombre casado = the married man
• un hombre casado = a married man

Leaving it out would usually be ungrammatical in a normal full sentence.

Usually casado means married, but like married in English, the exact real-life implication depends on context.

Grammatically, it simply describes the person’s marital status. It does not by itself tell you:

• whether the marriage is civil or religious
• how long the person has been married
• whether the speaker is being formal or informal

In ordinary use, though, the straightforward interpretation is simply married.