La reina llegó ayer.

Because la reina means the queen, referring to a specific queen.

In Spanish, singular countable nouns usually need an article or another determiner when you are talking about a specific person or thing. So:

• la reina = the queen
• una reina = a queen

Saying just reina by itself would usually sound incomplete in a normal statement like this.

Llegó is the third-person singular preterite form of llegar.

That form is used because:

• the subject is la reina = she / the queen
• the action happened at a specific completed time in the past
• ayer gives a finished time reference: yesterday

So:

• llego = I arrive
• llegaba = I/she was arriving / used to arrive
• llegó = she arrived

The accent mark shows both pronunciation and meaning.

• llegó = he/she arrived (preterite)
• llego = I arrive (present)

The written accent tells you the stress falls on the last syllable: lle-GÓ.

So the accent is not optional here; it changes the form of the verb.

Because Spanish often omits subject pronouns when they are not needed.

The verb form llegó already tells you the subject is he/she/it. Since la reina is explicitly stated, adding ella would be unnecessary.

Spanish commonly prefers:

• La reina llegó ayer.

rather than:

• Ella, la reina, llegó ayer.

You only add a pronoun like ella when you want emphasis, contrast, or clarity.

Because that is a very natural word order in Spanish: subject + verb + time expression.

So:

• La reina llegó ayer. = very normal

But Spanish word order is flexible, so you can also say:

• Ayer llegó la reina.
• La reina ayer llegó. (possible, but less neutral)

Putting ayer at the end sounds straightforward and neutral.

Yes. That is completely correct.

Both sentences are natural, but the emphasis is slightly different:

• La reina llegó ayer. → neutral statement
• Ayer llegó la reina. → puts more focus on yesterday

Spanish often moves time expressions like ayer, hoy, mañana, etc. for emphasis or style.

Because llegó presents the arrival as a completed event.

With ayer, Spanish usually uses the preterite for a finished action:

• La reina llegó ayer. = she arrived yesterday

By contrast, llegaba is the imperfect, which usually suggests:

• an ongoing action in the past
• a habitual action
• background description

For example:

• La reina llegaba siempre tarde. = The queen used to arrive late.
• Cuando la vimos, la reina llegaba al palacio. = When we saw her, the queen was arriving at the palace.

So in your sentence, llegó is the natural choice.

In Spain Spanish, reina is pronounced approximately RAY-nah.

A few key points:

• r at the start is a tapped/flapped Spanish r, not a strong English r
• ei forms a diphthong, sounding roughly like ay
• the stress is on rei: REI-na

So the rhythm is REI-na.

In most of Spain, ll is pronounced like a y sound, so llegó sounds roughly like yeh-GO.

A few details:

• ll usually sounds similar to English y in modern standard speech
• g before o is a hard g, as in go
• the stress is on the last syllable because of the accent: lle-GÓ

So a simple approximation is yeh-GO.

In some regions, ll may sound a little different, but y is a good practical guide for learners.

The verb agrees with reina in number and person, but not in gender.

So:

• la reina llegó = singular subject → singular verb
• las reinas llegaron = plural subject → plural verb

The fact that reina is feminine affects the article:

• la reina
• las reinas

But the verb form itself does not change for masculine vs feminine:

• el rey llegó
• la reina llegó

Both use llegó.

Because la reina is the subject, not the direct object.

The personal a is used before specific human direct objects, for example:

• Veo a la reina. = I see the queen.

But in your sentence:

• La reina llegó ayer.

La reina is the one doing the action, so it is the subject, and no a is used.

Not exactly.

• llegar focuses on arriving
• venir focuses on coming

In many contexts, English may use either come or arrive, but Spanish chooses different verbs depending on the perspective.

Here, llegó simply states that the queen arrived. If you used vino, that would mean came, and it would usually imply movement toward the speaker or another reference point.

So llegó is the more neutral verb for the fact of arrival.

Yes. Ayer is quite flexible.

All of these are possible:

• La reina llegó ayer.
• Ayer llegó la reina.
• La reina ayer llegó. (less neutral)

The most common neutral options are the first two. The choice depends on what you want to emphasize.

The plural would be:

• Las reinas llegaron ayer.

Changes:

• la → las
• reina → reinas
• llegó → llegaron

This shows how the article, noun, and verb change for plural.