Breakdown of La policía llegó rápido al accidente.
Questions & Answers about La policía llegó rápido al accidente.
Spanish uses la policía (feminine, singular) to talk about:
- the police force as an institution
- the police as a group in general
El policía means one male police officer (an individual person).
For a female officer you can say la policía (context shows it’s a person, not the institution) or la mujer policía / la agente de policía.
In this sentence, we mean the police (as a force) arrived, so la policía is the natural choice.
Here la policía is grammatically singular, so the verb must be singular: llegó.
- La policía llegó… = The police arrived… (the force / the body of police)
- Los policías llegaron… = The (individual) police officers arrived…
You cannot say ✗ La policía llegaron… in standard Spanish.
If you want a plural verb, you must change the noun to los policías.
Spanish normally needs a definite article with this kind of collective noun:
- La policía llegó…
- El gobierno decidió…
- La prensa dijo…
In English, you can often drop the (Police arrived quickly), but in Spanish you cannot usually drop la here:
- ✗ Policía llegó rápido al accidente → incorrect
- ✓ La policía llegó rápido al accidente → correct
So the article is just part of normal Spanish grammar.
Llegó is the preterite (pretérito indefinido). It presents the arrival as a completed event in the past, which is exactly what you want in a simple narrative:
- La policía llegó rápido al accidente.
The arrival is finished; we’re just telling what happened.
Alternatives:
La policía llegaba rápido al accidente.
Imperfect (llegaba) = background, ongoing action: The police was arriving… (maybe something else happened during that process).La policía ha llegado rápido al accidente.
Present perfect. In Spain this often suggests a connection with the present (e.g. today, just now). You might say this while still at the scene, focusing on the recent result.
In a neutral past narrative, llegó is the most natural choice.
In this sentence rápido functions as an adverb: it modifies the verb llegó (arrived quickly).
- La policía llegó rápido. → rápido = quickly (adverb)
- Un coche rápido. → rápido = fast (adjective describing coche)
As an adverb, rápido is invariable: it does not change for gender or number:
- Él corre rápido.
- Ellas corren rápido.
All are correct with rápido, not rápida / rápidos when used as an adverb.
Yes, you can say:
- La policía llegó rápidamente al accidente.
Both rápido and rápidamente are correct adverbs here.
The difference is mostly style:
- rápido – very common in speech, a bit more colloquial / neutral.
- rápidamente – feels slightly more formal, written, or emphatic.
In everyday Spanish (including in Spain), rápido is extremely common and completely standard.
The verb llegar takes the preposition a for the destination:
- llegar a un lugar = to arrive at a place
So we say:
- La policía llegó al accidente.
literally: The police arrived *to the accident → *at the accident.
En describes being inside / at / in a location, not the movement towards it:
- La policía estaba en el accidente.
The police were at the accident (already there).
So for arrive at, Spanish needs llegar a, not llegar en.
Al is a contraction of two words:
- a + el → al
You must use this contraction whenever a comes directly before the masculine singular article el:
- al accidente = a + el accidente
- al médico = a + el médico
So in the sentence:
- La policía llegó al accidente.
means La policía llegó a el accidente, but in correct Spanish it must be written and pronounced al, as one word.
All three are possible, but there are nuances:
- rápido – focuses on speed (they moved fast).
- pronto – often means soon / early, talking about time relative to when something was expected.
- La policía llegó pronto. → They arrived soon / early (not necessarily driving fast; just not late).
- deprisa – very common in Spain, quite close to rápido, also about speed.
- La policía llegó deprisa. → They came in a hurry / quickly.
In your original sentence, if you want to highlight how fast they moved, rápido or deprisa are the most natural choices.
Yes, that word order is also natural:
- La policía llegó rápido al accidente.
- La policía llegó al accidente rápido.
Both are correct. Spanish allows some flexibility in the position of many adverbs.
The difference in everyday speech is minimal; any slight change in emphasis is usually not important here. Both versions sound normal to native speakers.
Pronunciation (Spain): [po-li-ˈθi-a] (in most of Spain) or [po-li-ˈsi-a] (in Latin America).
- The stress falls on cí: po-li-CÍ-a.
- The accent mark on í shows:
- the stress is not on the second-to-last syllable (which would be the default for a word ending in a vowel),
- and it also indicates a hiatus: í + a are pronounced in two separate syllables (cí-a), not as one combined sound.
Without the written accent, policia would be pronounced po-LI-cia, which is not correct.
You could say La policía vino rápido al accidente, and it’s grammatically correct, but llegar is more natural in this context.
Basic difference:
- llegar = to arrive, neutral about direction; just focuses on reaching a destination.
- venir = to come, movement towards the speaker or reference point.
In a news-style or external narrative about an accident, Spanish normally uses llegar:
- La policía llegó rápido al accidente.
Venir is more likely if you are at the place and thinking of the movement towards you:
- La policía vino rápido cuando la llamamos.
The police came quickly when we called them.
In your sentence, llegó is the most typical choice.