Mi amiga llegó asustada.

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Breakdown of Mi amiga llegó asustada.

• la amiga: the friend
• llegar: to arrive
• asustado: scared

Questions & Answers about Mi amiga llegó asustada.

Why is it amiga and asustada, both ending in -a?

Because they refer to a female person.

• amiga = female friend
• asustada = frightened/scared, describing a female person

In Spanish, adjectives usually agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

So:

• Mi amiga llegó asustada. = My female friend arrived scared.
• Mi amigo llegó asustado. = My male friend arrived scared.

If it were plural:

• Mis amigas llegaron asustadas.

Why is the verb llegó in that form?

Llegó is the preterite form of llegar for él/ella/usted.

Here it means she arrived.

The preterite is used because arrival is seen as a completed event:

• Mi amiga llegó asustada. = My friend arrived scared.

This focuses on the fact that she arrived, as a finished action.

Compare:

• llegó = she arrived
• llegaba = she was arriving / used to arrive

So llegó is the natural choice here because the sentence is about a single completed arrival.

What is asustada doing here? Is it an adjective or an adverb?