Learn Spanish (Spain): La ciudad atrae a más jóvenes; por lo tanto, hay más empleo. - The city attracts more young people; therefore, there is more employment.

La ciudad atrae a más jóvenes; por lo tanto, hay más empleo.

The city attracts more young people; therefore, there is more employment.

Breakdown of La ciudad atrae a más jóvenes; por lo tanto, hay más empleo.

personal a (marks a person object)

más

more; else (anything else, nobody else)

Questions & Answers about La ciudad atrae a más jóvenes; por lo tanto, hay más empleo.

How does por lo tanto work in this sentence, and is it different from entonces?

Por lo tanto means "therefore" and acts as a consecutive connector, meaning it introduces the logical result of the first phrase. While you could use entonces (so/then) in everyday conversation, por lo tanto is slightly more formal and emphasizes the logical cause-and-effect relationship perfectly for this context.

Why do we need the a in atrae a más jóvenes?

This is a great example of the "personal a". Because jóvenes (young people) are human beings acting as the direct object of the verb atraer (to attract), Spanish requires you to put an a right before them.

Why does the sentence use jóvenes instead of personas jóvenes?

In Spanish, it's very common to use an adjective as a noun to refer to a group of people. While joven is the adjective for "young", putting it on its own as a plural noun (jóvenes) perfectly translates to "young people" or "the youth". You don't need to add the word personas.

Is the semicolon before por lo tanto required?

Yes, usually! When formal connectors like por lo tanto or por consiguiente link two complete, independent sentences, they are traditionally preceded by a semicolon (or a full stop) and followed by a comma.