Breakdown of Es que llevan cinco minutos sin salir del baño; ¡qué tortura!
ser
to be
el baño
bathroom
qué
what
el minuto
minute
del
from the / of the
salir
to go out / to leave
que
that / than
cinco
five
sin
without
llevar
to have been (doing) for a time
la tortura
the torture
Questions & Answers about Es que llevan cinco minutos sin salir del baño; ¡qué tortura!
How does the phrase llevan cinco minutos sin salir work to mean "they haven't come out in five minutes"?
This sentence uses the structure llevar + time expression + sin + infinitive. This is the standard Spanish way to express how long an action has not been happening. You literally say they "carry" five minutes "without coming out".
Could I just translate the English literally and say no han salido por cinco minutos?
While a Spanish speaker would understand you, it sounds much less natural. The llevar + sin + infinitive structure is the preferred, idiomatic way to express a continuous lack of action over a specific duration in Spanish.
Why does the sentence begin with Es que?
Es que is a very common conversational phrase that translates to "It's just that..." or "The thing is...". It is used here to introduce an explanation or a justification for the speaker's frustration.
In English we often say things like "what a nightmare" or "what a pain." Why isn't there an article like una in ¡qué tortura!?
In Spanish, exclamations starting with qué followed by a noun never take an indefinite article (un or una). You just attach qué directly to the noun, as in ¡qué tortura! or ¡qué lástima!.
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