Learn Spanish (Latin America): Como hay un apagón, tenemos que posponer la fiesta. - Since there is a power outage, we have to postpone the party.

Como has multiple meanings! In this lesson, we are using it to explain the cause of something. When you put como at the very beginning of a sentence, it acts as a causal connector meaning "since" or "because."

Can I flip the sentence and put como in the middle?

No, and this is an important rule! If you want to state the reason in the second half of the sentence, you must use porque instead: Tenemos que posponer la fiesta porque hay un apagón. The word como is only used to mean "because" when it introduces the very first part of the sentence.

Is apagón related to the verb apagar (to turn off)?

Yes! Apagar means "to turn off." The ending -ón is often used in Spanish to make a word bigger or more intense. So, an apagón is literally a big "turning off," which is how you say "power outage" or "blackout."

Why do we need the word que in tenemos que posponer?

This is a helpful phrase for expressing obligation. The verb tener by itself just means "to have" in the sense of owning something. But when you use the formula tener que followed by an unconjugated verb like posponer, it changes the meaning to "to have to" do something.