La secretaria revisó doscientos correos y acabó saliendo muy tarde de la oficina.

Revisó is the pretérito (simple past), which presents the action as completed: she checked/reviewed the emails and that action is seen as finished.

If you said revisaba, that would be the imperfect, which would sound more like:

• she was checking emails
• she used to check emails
• the action is being described as ongoing or habitual

In this sentence, the speaker is telling a completed sequence of events:

1. she reviewed 200 emails
2. as a result, she ended up leaving very late

So revisó fits best.

Because doscientos must agree in gender with the noun it modifies, and correos is masculine plural.

So:

• doscientos correos
• doscientas cartas

Compare:

• correo = masculine
• carta = feminine

That is why the form here is doscientos.

It can mean either in some contexts, but here it most naturally means emails.

That is because:

• revisar correos is a very common way to say check emails
• in an office context, that is the most likely meaning

In Spain, people also say:

• correos
• correos electrónicos
• sometimes emails, depending on the speaker

So in this sentence, doscientos correos is most likely 200 emails.

Acabar + gerundio often means to end up doing something.

So acabó saliendo muy tarde means:

• she ended up leaving very late
• after everything that happened, the result was that she left very late

This structure often adds a sense of:

• final outcome
• consequence
• sometimes something slightly unexpected or inevitable

So it is not just a plain past action. It highlights the result.

Because with this meaning, Spanish uses acabar + gerundio.

• acabó saliendo = she ended up leaving
• acabó de salir = she has just left

These are two different structures:

1. acabar + gerundio
   = to end up doing something

2. acabar de + infinitivo
   = to have just done something

So:

• acabó saliendo muy tarde = she ended up leaving very late
• acabó de salir = she just left

That is a very important distinction.

Both can mean that she left very late, but acabó saliendo muy tarde adds extra nuance.

• salió muy tarde = she left very late
• acabó saliendo muy tarde = she ended up leaving very late

The second version suggests:

• there was a process beforehand
• the late departure was the outcome of what happened
• it may not have been the original plan

In this sentence, since she reviewed 200 emails, acabó saliendo muy tarde strongly connects the late departure to that heavy workload.

Because muy is used to modify adjectives and adverbs, and tarde here is functioning adverbially.

So:

• muy tarde = very late

By contrast, mucho is generally used with:

• nouns: mucho trabajo
• verbs: trabaja mucho
• comparisons or quantities

So:

• muy tarde ✅
• mucho tarde ❌

A useful shortcut:

• muy = very
• mucho = much/many/a lot

Because in Spanish, the normal verb pattern is salir de + place:

• salir de casa
• salir del coche
• salir de la oficina

So de marks the place you are leaving.

Here:

• de la oficina = from/out of the office

You would not normally say salir la oficina. The preposition de is required.

Because la secretaria refers to a specific secretary: the secretary.

In Spanish, professions and roles often take the definite article when talking about a specific person in a sentence like this:

• La profesora llegó tarde
• El médico llamó
• La secretaria revisó doscientos correos

If you said just secretaria by itself, it would usually sound incomplete here.

Yes, secretaria is the feminine form, so it refers to a female secretary.

The masculine form is:

• secretario

So:

• La secretaria = the female secretary
• El secretario = the male secretary

Spanish usually marks this distinction grammatically.

Yes, Spanish word order is somewhat flexible, but the original order is the most natural here.

acabó saliendo muy tarde de la oficina sounds smooth because:

• muy tarde tells us when/how late
• de la oficina tells us from where

You could also hear:

• acabó saliendo de la oficina muy tarde

That is also correct and natural. The difference is mostly one of rhythm and emphasis, not basic meaning.

Yes. Revisar is fairly flexible, and the best English choice depends on context.

In this sentence, possible translations include:

• checked 200 emails
• reviewed 200 emails
• went through 200 emails

In an office context, checked is often the most natural everyday translation, while reviewed can sound a bit more formal or careful.

So learners should understand that revisar does not always correspond to just one English verb.