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El autobús se demora veinte minutos.

El autobús se demora veinte minutos.
The bus takes twenty minutes.
From Lesson 261:Delay and duration (tardar en)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El autobús se demora veinte minutos.

The current lesson is about using tardar, but this sentence uses se demora. Are they interchangeable?
Yes! In Latin American Spanish, the verb demorarse is frequently used instead of tardar to express how long something takes. Saying El autobús tarda veinte minutos would mean the exact same thing.
Why is it se demora with the reflexive pronoun se, rather than just demora?
When talking about the amount of time an action or a person takes, the reflexive form demorarse is much more natural in conversational Spanish than just demorar. You will almost always see the reflexive pronouns (me, te, se, etc.) used for this meaning.
The lesson formula is a verb + time + en + an infinitive. Why is there no en in this sentence?
You only need en plus an infinitive verb if you are stating the specific action that takes time. Since this sentence simply states that the bus takes twenty minutes without specifying an action like 'to arrive', the en and the extra verb are dropped.
How would I add an action to this sentence, like saying the bus takes twenty minutes 'to arrive'?
You would use the exact same formula you learned for tardar. Just add en llegar to the end of the sentence, making it: El autobús se demora veinte minutos en llegar.

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