Breakdown of El hospital está lleno por culpa del restaurante sucio.
de
from / of
el hospital
the hospital
estar
to be (location/state)
el restaurante
restaurant
sucio
dirty
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
la culpa
fault / blame
lleno
full (general)
Questions & Answers about El hospital está lleno por culpa del restaurante sucio.
Why do we use por culpa de here instead of a neutral connector like debido a?
Por culpa de translates to "because of" or "due to," but it specifically carries a negative tone, assigning blame (literally "by fault of"). Since the dirty restaurant caused a bad outcome (a full hospital, presumably from food poisoning), this negative connector fits perfectly. A phrase like debido a would be more emotionally neutral.
The lesson mentions both por culpa de and por culpa de que. Why don't we need que in this sentence?
We drop que because the connector is followed directly by a noun phrase (el restaurante sucio). You only use por culpa de que when introducing a clause with a conjugated verb, for example: por culpa de que el restaurante estaba sucio (because the restaurant was dirty).
Where does the word del come from in this sentence?
The causal connector is por culpa de. When the preposition de is immediately followed by the masculine singular article el (for el restaurante), Spanish requires them to contract into the single word del.
Why does this sentence use está instead of es for the hospital being full?
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