Cuando su marido llega cansado, su esposa apaga el portátil y, al entrar en el dormitorio, hablan un rato.

Spanish normally prefers possessive adjectives like su instead of longer phrases like el marido de ella.

• Su means his / her / their / your (formal). It is ambiguous on its own.
• In this sentence, context tells us it’s her husband, because the next subject is su esposa (his wife), so we understand it’s a married couple being described from an outside point of view.

You could say el marido de ella, but it sounds heavier and is only used when you really need to emphasize or clarify whose husband it is.

Both are possible, but they focus on different things:

• llega cansado = he arrives in a tired state (the tiredness is linked to the act of arriving; it’s like saying he gets home tired).
• está cansado = he is tired (just describing his state, not tied to the action of arriving).

In this sentence, llega cansado paints the picture of him coming home already exhausted, which fits the idea of a routine: when he comes home tired, she reacts.

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

• Marido (husband) is masculine singular.
• So the adjective must also be masculine singular: cansado.
• If it were su mujer / su esposa and she were arriving tired, it would be llega cansada.

Spanish often uses the present tense for:

• Habits and repeated actions: things that happen regularly.
• General truths.

Here, Cuando su marido llega cansado, su esposa apaga el portátil... describes a habitual situation: whenever this happens, she does that.

Depending on context, you could also see:

• Cuando su marido llegó cansado, su esposa apagó el portátil... (a specific event in the past).
• Cuando su marido llegue cansado, su esposa apagará el portátil... (a future/possible situation; note the subjunctive llegue).

Several verbs can be used for coming/returning home, but they have slightly different focuses:

• llegar (a casa) = to arrive (home). Focus on the arrival point.
• venir (a casa) = to come (home). Often from the listener’s point of view.
• volver (a casa) = to return (home). Focus on coming back after being away.

Llega cansado highlights the act of arriving and his condition at that moment, which suits this neutral description well. Viene cansado is also possible, but llegar is very natural with places or home.

Spanish usually drops subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, ella, nosotros, etc.) when the verb ending already makes the subject clear:

• llega = he/she arrives (3rd person singular).
• apaga = he/she turns off (3rd person singular).
• hablan = they speak (3rd person plural).

Because the forms are different (llega, apaga, hablan) and we already have su marido and su esposa mentioned, there is no need to repeat él / ella / ellos.

Hablan is 3rd person plural, so the implied subject is they.

In this context, they naturally refers to the couple:

• su marido (her husband)
• su esposa (his wife)

So the meaning is: When they go into the bedroom, they talk for a while. Spanish does not repeat the noun phrase; the plural verb hablan alone is enough.

Both are possible, but they’re slightly different in structure:

• al + infinitive = upon / when doing something (very common in written Spanish).
  • al entrar en el dormitorio = upon entering the bedroom / when they enter the bedroom.
• cuando + verb:
  • cuando entran en el dormitorio = when they enter the bedroom.

Al entrar en el dormitorio sounds a bit more compact and “literary” or formal. It also implies that the subject of entrar is the same as the subject of the main verb hablan (they).

Al + infinitive is equivalent to:

• when doing something
• upon doing something
• sometimes as soon as / while doing something, depending on context.

Examples:

• Al llegar a casa, cena. – When he gets home, he has dinner / Upon arriving home, he has dinner.
• Al salir del trabajo, te llamo. – When I leave work, I’ll call you.

In your sentence, al entrar en el dormitorio = when (they) go into the bedroom / upon entering the bedroom.

With entrar, Spanish most often uses en for into / in:

• entrar en un lugar – to go into / enter a place.

So:

• entrar en el dormitorio = to go into the bedroom.

You might see entrar a in some varieties and contexts (more in Latin America or with specific nuances), but in standard European Spanish, entrar en is the safest and most common choice here.

Spanish uses definite articles (el, la, los, las) much more than English:

• apaga el portátil = she turns off the laptop (in context, it’s her laptop, but Spanish still uses el).
• en el dormitorio = in the bedroom.

Even when English omits the, Spanish often keeps it. Omitting the article here (apaga portátil, en dormitorio) would sound wrong or very unnatural.

In Spain:

• un portátil (short for ordenador portátil) almost always means a laptop computer.
• People often just say el portátil in everyday speech.

In many parts of Latin America, you are more likely to hear la computadora portátil or la laptop, but portátil is clearly understood.

Un rato is a vague expression meaning:

• a while, for a bit, for some time (but not very long).

It does not specify a precise duration; it just suggests a short or moderate period of time, depending on context. So hablan un rato = they talk for a while / they chat for a bit.

Apagar is a normal transitive verb here:

• apaga el portátil = she turns off the laptop (she acts on the object).

If you say se apaga el portátil, you get something like:

• El portátil se apaga. – The laptop turns off (by itself).
  This either sounds passive (it gets turned off) or like the laptop shuts down automatically.

In your sentence, the wife is actively performing the action, so the direct object construction apaga el portátil is the correct one.

With cuando, Spanish uses:

• Indicative for habitual, known, or completed actions.
• Subjunctive for future, hypothetical, or uncertain actions.

Here, it’s a habitual situation:

• Cuando su marido llega cansado, su esposa apaga el portátil...
  = Whenever her husband arrives tired, she turns off the laptop... (habitual, real situation).

If we were talking about a future or hypothetical event, we’d use the subjunctive:

• Cuando su marido llegue cansado, su esposa apagará el portátil.
  = When her husband arrives tired (in the future), she will turn off the laptop.