Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Confío en mi profesora porque explica claramente y me escucha. - I trust my teacher because she explains clearly and listens to me.

Confiar en alguien = to trust someone
- Confío en mi profesora. = I trust my teacher.
Confiar en algo = to trust something / to have faith in something
- Confío en el sistema. = I trust the system.

Using confiar without en changes or breaks the meaning in this context, and confiar a is not used with this meaning. So confío en mi profesora is the natural, correct structure.

What does the accent in confío do? How is it different from confio?

The accent mark in confío shows:

Where the stress goes:
- confío is pronounced con-FÍ-o (three syllables: con–fí–o).
- Without the accent (confio) you would expect it to be stressed on -fi- anyway (because of spelling rules), but…
More importantly, it breaks a diphthong:
- ío at the end is pronounced as two separate vowel sounds: í-o, not as one combined sound.
- The accent tells you it’s co-nfí-o, not something like con-fyo.

Grammatically, confío is the first person singular present tense of confiar (I trust). Confio without an accent is simply incorrect spelling in standard Spanish.

Why is it mi profesora and not la profesora or mi profesor?

Mi means my, so mi profesora is my (female) teacher.
Profesora is the feminine form of profesor.
- mi profesor = my (male) teacher
- mi profesora = my (female) teacher

In Spanish, you usually don’t use the article with possessives:

✅ mi profesora (my teacher)
❌ la mi profesora

You’d use la profesora if you meant the (female) teacher without specifying that she is your teacher.

So mi profesora is correct because:

You want to say my, not the.
You are talking about a female teacher, so you use profesora.

Could I say maestra or profe instead of profesora in Spain?

Yes, but there are nuances:

Profesora
- Neutral, standard term for a female teacher, especially in secondary school, high school, and university.
Maestra
- More typically used for primary school teachers. In Spain, maestro/maestra is usually associated with elementary education.
Profe
- Very common, informal and friendly abbreviation of profesor/profesora.
- A student might say: Confío en mi profe (I trust my teacher) in a casual context.

In the sentence you gave, mi profesora is neutral and works very well in Spain.

Why is it porque (one word) here and not por qué (two words)?

Porque (one word) means because and introduces a reason:
- Confío en mi profesora porque explica claramente y me escucha.
  I trust my teacher because she explains clearly and listens to me.
Por qué (two words, with an accent) is usually used in questions and means why:
- ¿Por qué confías en tu profesora?
  Why do you trust your teacher?

Since your sentence gives a reason, it must use porque, not por qué.

Who is the subject of explica and escucha if there is no ella?

The subject is mi profesora.

Spanish often omits subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, ella, etc.) because the verb ending already tells you who is doing the action.

The structure is:

Confío en mi profesora
→ subject: yo (implied), verb: confío, object: mi profesora
porque explica claramente y me escucha
→ subject: ella (implied, referring back to mi profesora),
→ verbs: explica, escucha

So the full, very explicit version would be:

Confío en mi profesora porque ella explica claramente y ella me escucha.

But in natural Spanish you drop ella because the context is clear.

Why is it explica claramente instead of something like explica claro?

Claramente is the adverb form of claro and means clearly. It modifies the verb explica (she explains):

explicar claramente = to explain clearly

You can hear:

explica claro

In many contexts, especially colloquially, claro is also used adverbially (= clearly). However:

explica claramente sounds a bit more standard/neutral and can sound slightly more formal or precise.
Both are understood; claramente is the textbook-style adverb form.

Other natural options:

explica con claridad (explains with clarity)
explica las cosas muy claro (explains things very clearly, more colloquial)

Why is it me escucha and not escucha me or escucha a mí?

Spanish has specific rules for object pronoun placement.

With a conjugated verb (like escucha), the pronoun normally goes before the verb:
- me escucha = she listens to me
- te escucha = she listens to you
- nos escucha = she listens to us
Escucha me is wrong in standard Spanish word order (except in some special cases like commands: ¡Escúchame! = Listen to me!).
Escucha a mí is grammatically possible but:
- You would normally just say me escucha.
- A mí is used for emphasis or contrast:
  - A mí me escucha, pero a otros no.
    She listens to me, but not to others.

So in your neutral, simple sentence, me escucha is the natural and correct form.

Could I say Confío en mi profesora porque está explicando claramente y me escucha to mean she is explaining clearly (right now)?

You could, but it slightly changes the focus.

Explica claramente (simple present) in Spanish can mean:
- She generally explains clearly (habit, characteristic).
- She explains clearly in the situations we’re talking about, including possibly now.

Spanish uses the simple present much more often than English for both general and current actions.

Está explicando claramente (present continuous) focuses more on an action happening right now:
- She is explaining clearly (at this moment).

In your sentence, Confío en mi profesora porque explica claramente y me escucha sounds like:

I trust her because, in general / habitually, she explains clearly and listens to me.

Using está explicando would make it sound more like:

Right now she is explaining clearly, and that’s (part of) why I trust her.

For a general statement of trust, explica claramente is more natural.

Why is mi used and not mío, as in Confío en mío profesora?

Mío and mi are different types of possessives:

Mi is an adjectival possessive (goes before a noun, no article):
- mi profesora = my teacher
- mi casa = my house
Mío/mía/míos/mías are pronominal possessives (usually stand alone, or replace the noun, often with an article):
- Es mío. = It is mine.
- Es la profesora mía. (possible, but sounds marked/emphatic/poetic)

You cannot say:

❌ Confío en mío profesora

You must say:

✅ Confío en mi profesora.

Could I change the order to Confío en mi profesora porque me escucha y explica claramente? Is that still correct?

Yes, that sentence is still grammatically correct and natural:

Confío en mi profesora porque me escucha y explica claramente.

The order explica claramente y me escucha vs me escucha y explica claramente is flexible. The slight difference is in what you mention first, which can add a tiny nuance of emphasis:

Original: …porque explica claramente y me escucha.
- Emphasizes her clear explanations first, then that she listens.
Variant: …porque me escucha y explica claramente.
- Emphasizes the fact that she listens first.

Both are perfectly fine in everyday Spanish.

Are there any important Spain-vs-Latin-America differences in this sentence?

This sentence is completely standard and would be understood everywhere. A few minor notes:

Profesora is common on both sides of the Atlantic.
- In some Latin American countries, students might more often say maestra for school teachers.
The verb forms (confío, explica, escucha) are the same in Spain and Latin America for yo and ella.
Vocabulary and structure (confiar en, porque, me escucha) are neutral and pan-Hispanic.

So this exact sentence works perfectly in Spain Spanish and is also natural in most of Latin America.