Word
El rodillo se atascó por no lubricar el engranaje.
Meaning
The roller got jammed for not lubricating the gear.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of El rodillo se atascó por no lubricar el engranaje.
no
no, not
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
el engranaje
the gear
lubricar
to lubricate
Questions & Answers about El rodillo se atascó por no lubricar el engranaje.
Who is the subject of lubricar here, since it is an infinitive?
There is no specific subject! Similar to the impersonal instructions you are learning (like no fumar), Spanish often uses the infinitive for general, unspecified actions. Here, por no lubricar implies that the gear was not lubricated by anyone in particular. English would often use the passive voice here ("because the gear wasn't lubricated").
Why use por instead of porque to say "because"?
Porque must be followed by a conjugated verb (like porque no lubricaron). When you want to say "because of" or "due to" followed by an action in its infinitive form, you must use the preposition por.
Why is it se atascó instead of just atascó?