Learn Spanish (Latin America): Como el ruido es fuerte, posponemos la reunión. - Since the noise is loud, we are postponing the meeting.

Como el ruido es fuerte, posponemos la reunión.

Since the noise is loud, we are postponing the meeting.

Breakdown of Como el ruido es fuerte, posponemos la reunión.

ser

to be

la reunión

the meeting / the gathering

Questions & Answers about Como el ruido es fuerte, posponemos la reunión.

Why does como mean "since" here? I thought it meant "how" or "like".

You probably know como as "like" or "how", but when it is placed at the very beginning of a sentence, it usually acts as a connector meaning "since" or "because". It introduces the cause or reason before stating the result.

Could I start this sentence with porque instead of como?

Generally, no. In Spanish, you rarely start a sentence with porque (because). If you want to state the reason first, you use como. If you want to use porque, you should put the reason in the second half of the sentence: Posponemos la reunión porque el ruido es fuerte.

I learned that fuerte means "strong". Why is it translated as "loud" here?

Fuerte literally means "strong", but when it is used to describe sounds, voices, or noises (ruido), it translates to "loud". So, el ruido es fuerte means "the noise is loud".

Why use the simple present posponemos if the English translation says "we are postponing"?

The Spanish simple present tense (posponemos) is very flexible. It can mean "we postpone", "we do postpone", or "we are postponing". You don't always need the present continuous (estamos posponiendo) unless you really want to emphasize that the action is happening at this exact second.