Word
Poco a poco, me fui tranquilizando al escuchar la voz de mi profesora.
Meaning
Little by little, I gradually calmed down when I heard my teacher’s voice.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Poco a poco, me fui tranquilizando al escuchar la voz de mi profesora.
yo
I
mi
my
de
of
la profesora
the teacher
Questions & Answers about Poco a poco, me fui tranquilizando al escuchar la voz de mi profesora.
What does poco a poco mean, and why is it repeated?
Poco a poco means little by little, gradually, or step by step.
The repetition is part of the fixed expression. You do not usually translate it word for word as little to little. It simply means that something happened progressively, not all at once.
In this sentence, it tells you that the speaker gradually became calmer.
Why is it me fui tranquilizando instead of just me tranquilicé?
Both are possible, but they express slightly different ideas.
- Me fui tranquilizando suggests a gradual process:
I was gradually calming down / I slowly became calmer - Me tranquilicé sounds more like a completed change:
I calmed down
The structure ir + gerundio often shows something that develops over time.
So:
- Me fui tranquilizando = the calming down happened bit by bit
- Me tranquilicé = I calmed down, without emphasizing the process as much
This matches very well with poco a poco.
Why is there a me in me fui tranquilizando?