Breakdown of El tramo por el que iba el tren era muy oscuro.
ser
to be
ir
to go
muy
very
el tren
train
que
that / than
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
oscuro
dark
el tramo
the stretch / the section
Questions & Answers about El tramo por el que iba el tren era muy oscuro.
Why do we need the article el in por el que? Can I just say por que?
After most prepositions (like por, de, en, con), Spanish requires an article before the relative pronoun que when referring back to a noun. Since it refers to el tramo (a masculine singular noun), we use el que. If you just dropped the article and said por que, it would be grammatically incorrect and sound just like porque (because).
Could we use por el cual in this sentence instead of por el que?
Could we use por donde here instead of por el que?
Absolutely. Because el tramo is a physical route or location, you can use donde after the preposition. El tramo por donde iba el tren is highly natural in everyday speech and is often the preferred way to talk about moving through physical places.
Why is the word order iba el tren instead of el tren iba?
In Spanish relative clauses (the part of the sentence starting with a relative pronoun like que or donde), it is extremely common to invert the word order and place the subject after the verb. This is especially true when the subject is a full noun like el tren. While por el que el tren iba is technically understandable, por el que iba el tren flows much better and sounds far more natural to native speakers.
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