Word
El autobús tarda treinta minutos en llegar al campus si no hay tráfico.
Meaning
The bus takes thirty minutes to get to campus if there is no traffic.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of El autobús tarda treinta minutos en llegar al campus si no hay tráfico.
en
in
al
to the
hay
there is/are
no
not
Questions & Answers about El autobús tarda treinta minutos en llegar al campus si no hay tráfico.
Why is it tarda here, and what does tardar mean?
Tardar means to take time or to be slow in doing something.
In this sentence, El autobús tarda treinta minutos... literally means The bus takes thirty minutes...
A very common pattern is:
- tardar + amount of time + en + infinitive
- Tardo diez minutos en llegar. = I take ten minutes to arrive.
- Se tarda una hora en coche. = It takes an hour by car.
So tarda is the third-person singular present form, matching el autobús.
Why do we say en llegar after tarda?
After tardar, Spanish normally uses en + infinitive to say how long it takes to do something.
So:
- tarda treinta minutos en llegar = it takes thirty minutes to arrive
This is a fixed and very common structure:
- Tardo cinco minutos en vestirme. = I take five minutes to get dressed.
- Tardamos dos horas en terminar. = We took / take two hours to finish.
Without en llegar, the sentence would feel incomplete if you want to say what takes thirty minutes.