Learn Spanish (Latin America): La chica está feliz porque gana.

La chica está feliz porque gana.

The girl is happy because she wins.

Breakdown of La chica está feliz porque gana.

feliz

happy

estar

to be (location/state)

la chica

the girl (older / teenager)

porque

because

Questions & Answers about La chica está feliz porque gana.

Why is porque written as one word without an accent? I thought 'why' was two words.

You are thinking of por qué (two words, with an accent), which means 'why' and is used for asking questions. In this sentence, we are giving a reason, so we use the conjunction porque (one word, no accent), which means 'because'.

Why does this sentence use está instead of es for 'is'?

We use está (from the verb estar) because being happy is a temporary feeling or emotion right now. If we used es (from ser), it would mean the girl is a naturally happy or cheerful person in general, rather than just happy at this moment because of the game.

The English translation says 'because she wins', but I do not see the word for 'she' (ella) after porque. Why is it missing?

In Spanish, you can often drop the subject pronoun (like ella) if it is already clear who we are talking about. Since the first half of the sentence is about la chica (the girl), the verb form gana (she wins) is enough to show that she is the one winning.

Could gana also mean 'she is winning'?

Yes! In Spanish, the simple present tense (gana) can translate to both 'she wins' and 'she is winning' in English. Depending on the context, 'The girl is happy because she is winning' is also a perfect translation for this sentence.