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Él para el cronómetro y rompe a reír por la apuesta.

Él para el cronómetro y rompe a reír por la apuesta.
He stops the stopwatch and breaks into laughter because of the bet.
From Lesson 383:Sudden starts (echarse a / romper a)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Él para el cronómetro y rompe a reír por la apuesta.

What does the phrase rompe a do in this sentence?
The structure romper a + infinitive is used to express that an action starts very suddenly. It is mostly used with verbs expressing emotional reactions or natural phenomena, like llorar (to cry), reír (to laugh), or llover (to rain). Here, rompe a reír translates naturally as breaking into laughter.
Since the lesson also covers echar(se) a, could I say se echa a reír instead?
Yes, absolutely! Echarse a + infinitive is another way to express a sudden start to an action. With laughing (reír) and crying (llorar), romper a and echarse a are practically interchangeable, though echarse a is slightly more common in everyday spoken Spanish.
Why do we use the preposition por in por la apuesta instead of para?
We use por here because it indicates the cause or reason for his laughter, meaning he is laughing because of the bet. If you used para, it would imply a goal or purpose (laughing in order to achieve the bet), which does not fit this context.
Is the first para in the sentence related to the preposition para?
No, the para in Él para el cronómetro is the third-person singular present tense of the verb parar (to stop). It is just a coincidence that it is spelled identically to the preposition para.

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