Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): El tren llega con retraso, pero seguimos tranquilos. - The train arrives with a delay, but we remain calm.

Here, El tren llega con retraso means “The train is arriving late / will arrive late” in the context of the timetable. Using llegará or va a llegar is possible, but it sounds less like a standard announcement and more like a neutral statement about the future.

In Spain, llega con retraso is a very natural, almost formulaic way to talk about a delayed train or bus.

Why do we say con retraso instead of tarde?

Both relate to lateness, but they’re used differently:

Con retraso literally means “with delay” and is very common with public transport, flights, official events, services, etc.
- El tren llega con retraso. – The train is delayed.
- El vuelo sale con retraso. – The flight departs late / is delayed.
Tarde is a more general adverb meaning “late”, often for people or actions:
- He llegado tarde. – I arrived late.
- La película empieza tarde. – The film starts late.

You can say El tren llega tarde, and it’s correct, but con retraso sounds more like what you’d actually hear in announcements or formal information about transport.

Why the preposition con in con retraso? Could it be en retraso or de retraso?

In this expression, Spanish uses con to mean “with a certain condition/feature”:

llegar con retraso – to arrive with delay (delayed)
venir con prisa – to come in a hurry
salir con ventaja – to start with an advantage

En retraso and de retraso are not idiomatic in this context. The fixed collocation is:

llegar con retraso
salir con retraso

Memorize con retraso as a chunk.

What exactly does seguimos tranquilos mean? Is it different from estamos tranquilos?

Estamos tranquilos = We are calm (describes the current state).
Seguimos tranquilos = We remain / stay calm, we’re still calm (emphasizes continuation of that state).

So:

El tren llega con retraso, pero estamos tranquilos.
Focus: our current emotional state is calm.
El tren llega con retraso, pero seguimos tranquilos.
Focus: we were calm and we continue to be calm, despite the delay.

The verb seguir here adds the idea of “still / keep on”.

Is tranquilos an adjective here? How does seguir + adjective work?

Yes, tranquilos is an adjective that agrees with nosotros (understood subject).

Structure:

seguir + adjective = to remain / stay + adjective

Examples:

Seguimos tranquilos. – We remain calm.
Siguió enfermo toda la semana. – He stayed ill all week.
El problema sigue abierto. – The problem remains unresolved/open.

So seguimos tranquilos literally means “we continue calm” → we remain calm.

Why is it tranquilos and not tranquilo? What if the group is all women?

Adjectives in Spanish agree with the grammatical person and number:

The (implicit) subject here is nosotros → masculine plural.
So the adjective must also be masculine plural: tranquilos.

Forms:

Yo estoy tranquilo / tranquila.
Nosotros estamos tranquilos. (all men or mixed group)
Nosotras estamos tranquilas. (all women)

So:

Mixed group or all men: seguimos tranquilos
Group of only women: seguimos tranquilas

If you explicitly used the pronoun:

Nosotros seguimos tranquilos.
Nosotras seguimos tranquilas.

Why is there no nosotros? Would Nosotros seguimos tranquilos be wrong?

Subject pronouns in Spanish are often omitted because the verb ending already shows the person:

seguimos clearly indicates “we” (1st person plural).

So both are grammatically correct:

Seguimos tranquilos. – Natural and normal.
Nosotros seguimos tranquilos. – Also correct, but the nosotros adds emphasis or contrast (e.g. compared to others).

You might use the pronoun if you want to stress we (as opposed to others):

El tren llega con retraso, pero nosotros seguimos tranquilos.
→ “The train is late, but we (not others) stay calm.”

Could we use aunque instead of pero? For example: El tren llega con retraso, aunque seguimos tranquilos.

Yes, you can say:

El tren llega con retraso, aunque seguimos tranquilos.

Differences:

pero = but / however. It strongly marks a contrast.
- El tren llega con retraso, pero seguimos tranquilos.
  → The delay contrasts with the calm reaction.
aunque = although / even though. It introduces a concessive clause.
- Aunque el tren llega con retraso, seguimos tranquilos.
  → Even though the train is late, we stay calm.

Both are correct; pero is more straightforwardly “but”, while aunque makes the “even though” relationship more explicit.

Could we say El tren viene con retraso instead of llega con retraso? Is there a nuance?

Yes, El tren viene con retraso is understandable and not wrong, but there is a nuance:

llegar focuses on the arrival at the destination.
- El tren llega con retraso. – The train arrives late (with delay).
venir focuses on movement towards the speaker.
- El tren viene con retraso. – The train is coming late / is on its way and delayed.

In announcements and official info, llegar is much more standard:
El tren llega con retraso is the typical phrase you’d hear at a station in Spain.

Can we change the word order, like pero tranquilos seguimos? Does that sound natural?

Yes, you can change the word order a bit:

El tren llega con retraso, pero seguimos tranquilos. – Most neutral.
El tren llega con retraso, pero tranquilos seguimos. – Possible, but sounds more marked/poetic or colloquial with emphasis on tranquilos.

In everyday speech, the most natural is:

… pero seguimos tranquilos.

Placing tranquilos before seguimos is more for stylistic effect, emphasis, or a casual spoken style. It’s correct but less neutral.