Breakdown of Los trenes no circulaban cuando la incidencia afectó a la línea.
no
no / not
el tren
the train
a
personal a (marks a person object)
la línea
the line
cuando
when (not in questions)
circular
to run (transit)
la incidencia
the incident
afectar
to affect
Questions & Answers about Los trenes no circulaban cuando la incidencia afectó a la línea.
Why do we use circulaban and afectó in the same sentence?
This is a classic example of how two past tenses work together. We use the imperfect tense circulaban for the background action that was ongoing (the trains were not running). We use the preterite tense afectó for the specific event that happened at a clear point in time (the incident affected the line).
Why use circulaban instead of a word like corrían for trains running?
Does incidencia just mean any type of incident?
While it translates to incident, in Spain incidencia is heavily used to mean a glitch, breakdown, or service disruption. You will hear it constantly on public transport or with tech issues when something is not working normally.
Why is there an a before la línea? Is it the personal a?
It is not the personal a because a train line is not a person. Instead, the verb afectar (to affect) almost always requires the preposition a before the thing or person being affected. You can think of it as causing an effect to something.
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