Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Al escuchar la tormenta por la noche, llamé a mi médica para estar más tranquila. - When I heard the storm at night, I called my doctor to feel calmer.

Al + infinitive (e.g. al escuchar) literally means on/when/upon doing something.
- It is formed from a + el → al, plus an infinitive.
- It’s similar to English: “On hearing the storm…” or “When hearing the storm…”.
- It’s quite common in written and neutral Spanish.
Cuando escuché la tormenta uses a normal finite verb (escuché).
- It’s more like “When I heard the storm”.

In this sentence, “Al escuchar la tormenta por la noche, llamé…” highlights the moment of hearing as the trigger for calling. “Cuando escuché…” would be fine too; it just uses a more straightforward clause instead of the infinitive construction.

What exactly is the “al” in “Al escuchar”? Is it the article “el”?

Historically, “al” is a + el (to + the), but in this construction it no longer feels like a normal article.

In al + infinitive, al functions as a fixed linker that means something like “on / when / upon”.
You can’t change it to a un or a la or drop it:
- ✗ A escuchar la tormenta, llamé… (incorrect in this sense)
- ✓ Al escuchar la tormenta, llamé…

So here al isn’t really “to the”, it’s just part of the idiomatic phrase “al + infinitive” expressing time or cause: “upon hearing / when I heard”.

Why is it “escuchar” and not “oír”?

Spanish distinguishes:

oír = to perceive sound (hear, whether you want to or not).
escuchar = to pay attention to what you are hearing (listen).

In practice, there is overlap, and in everyday speech many people could say:

Al oír la tormenta por la noche…
Al escuchar la tormenta por la noche…

Using escuchar here can suggest she was actively paying attention to the storm or that the sound captured her attention. Using oír would simply stress that she heard it, without the idea of active listening. Both would be understood.

Why do we say “la tormenta” and not just “tormenta” or “una tormenta”?

Spanish normally requires an article with singular countable nouns:

la tormenta = the storm (a specific storm, probably known from context: that storm that was happening that night).
una tormenta = a storm (introducing it as new or unspecified information).

You can’t usually drop the article like in English:

✗ Al escuchar tormenta por la noche… (incorrect in normal Spanish)
✓ Al escuchar la tormenta por la noche…
✓ Al escuchar una tormenta por la noche… (slightly different nuance)

Here, la tormenta sounds like the particular storm that was going on that night.

Why is it “por la noche” instead of “en la noche” or “de noche”?

All three exist, but their uses differ:

por la noche
- Very common. Means at night / during the night in a broad sense.
- Emphasizes the time frame: at some point during the night.
de noche
- Also very common. Often means “at night / by night” in general, as a habitual or contrasting time:
  - Conduce mejor de noche que de día.
en la noche
- Grammatically correct, but less idiomatic in Spain in this kind of sentence.
- More often used in specific contexts (e.g. en la noche del 24 de diciembre).

In Peninsular Spanish, por la noche is the most natural here for “at night/during the night” as a circumstance of time.

Why is the verb “llamé” in the preterite and not in the imperfect (“llamaba”)?

Llamé (pretérito indefinido) describes a single, completed action in the past:

Llamé a mi médica = I called my doctor (one definite event, finished).

The imperfect llamaba is for ongoing, repeated, or background actions:

Llamaba a mi médica cada vez que había tormenta.
= I used to call / I would call my doctor whenever there was a storm.

In this sentence, the call is a single reaction to that specific storm, so llamé is the natural choice.

Why is there an “a” in “llamé a mi médica”?

That a is the “personal a” used before a direct object that is a specific person (or pet):

Llamé a mi médica. (my doctor is a person)
Vi a María.
Ayudé a mi hermano.

Without a, it would sound wrong:

✗ Llamé mi médica. (incorrect)
✓ Llamé a mi médica.

It doesn’t translate directly into English; it’s just a grammar rule for human (and some animal) direct objects in Spanish.

Why “mi médica” and not “mi médico”?

Spanish now commonly uses feminine forms for professions when the person is a woman:

el médico / la médica
el profesor / la profesora
el abogado / la abogada

In Spain today, mi médica normally means my (female) doctor. Mi médico can be:

a male doctor, or
in older usage, the profession in general, but nowadays that sounds more neutral only if you don’t specify gender.

You could also say mi doctora, which is equally correct and common, especially when referring to a female physician. The choice between médica and doctora is stylistic; both are fine.

Why is there no subject pronoun “yo” in “llamé a mi médica”?

Spanish is a “pro‑drop” language: subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending already shows the subject:

llamé → first person singular yo (I).
So “(yo) llamé” is normally just “llamé”.

You add yo only when you want to emphasize or contrast:

Yo llamé a mi médica, no mi marido.

In this sentence, there’s no contrast or emphasis needed, so yo is dropped.

In “para estar más tranquila”, who is the subject of “estar”?

The subject of the infinitive estar is the same as the subject of the main verb llamé (the speaker).

Implied full meaning:
Llamé a mi médica para (yo) estar más tranquila.

Spanish usually omits the subject of an infinitive when it’s the same as the subject of the main verb. If you wanted a different subject, you would have to specify it:

Llamé a mi médica para que *ella estuviera más tranquila.
(I called so that *she would be calmer.)

Why is it “para estar” and not something like “para sentirme más tranquila”?

Both ideas are possible, but they say slightly different things:

para estar más tranquila
- Literally: in order to be calmer.
- Focuses on the state the speaker wants to reach.
para sentirme más tranquila
- Literally: in order to feel calmer.
- Focuses more on the internal feeling/perception.

In everyday speech, para estar más tranquila is very common and natural. It’s simpler and still clearly expresses that the goal of calling was to achieve a calmer state.

Why is it “tranquila” (feminine) and not “tranquilo”?

Adjectives in Spanish agree in gender and number with the noun or pronoun they describe.

Here, tranquila describes the speaker (the implied yo), who is understood to be female:

If the speaker is a woman: más tranquila.
If the speaker is a man: más tranquilo.
If it referred to a mixed or all‑male group: más tranquilos.
If to an all‑female group: más tranquilas.

So tranquila tells you that the “I” in the sentence is female.

Can we change the word order, like “Llamé a mi médica al escuchar la tormenta por la noche”?

Yes. Spanish word order for adverbial clauses is quite flexible:

Al escuchar la tormenta por la noche, llamé a mi médica…
Llamé a mi médica al escuchar la tormenta por la noche…

Both are correct and mean the same. Starting with “Al escuchar la tormenta…” slightly emphasizes the circumstance (hearing the storm) as the setting or cause before telling you what action was taken. Placing it after is a bit more neutral or action‑focused.