Breakdown of La médica ha llegado tarde hoy por el atasco.
la médica
the doctor
llegar
to arrive
hoy
today
tarde
late
haber
to have (auxiliary)
por
because of (cause)
el atasco
the traffic jam
Questions & Answers about La médica ha llegado tarde hoy por el atasco.
Why do we use por here instead of porque to say "because of"?
Por is used to express the cause or reason for something, translating perfectly to "because of" or "due to" when followed by a noun like el atasco (the traffic jam). You would use porque (because) if you were following it with a full phrase that includes a conjugated verb, such as porque había un atasco (because there was a traffic jam).
Could we use para instead of por here?
Why does the sentence use the present perfect ha llegado (has arrived) instead of the simple past llegó (arrived)?
In Spain, the present perfect (ha llegado) is the standard tense for actions that happened in a time period that isn't over yet. The word hoy (today) is a classic trigger for this, so Spanish speakers say ha llegado tarde hoy even though we often just say "arrived late today" in English.
I usually see el médico for doctor. Is la médica common?
Yes! While historically el médico was sometimes used for both men and women, la médica is the standard, everyday way to refer to a female doctor in modern Spanish.
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