Breakdown of Mi hermana llegó a casa llorando.
la casa
the house / home (also "at home")
la hermana
the sister
llegar
to arrive
mi
my
Questions & Answers about Mi hermana llegó a casa llorando.
Why is llegó used here instead of vino if the English translation says "came"?
In Spanish, llegar (to arrive) is the most natural way to say someone "got home" or "arrived home". While vino (from venir, to come) isn't wrong, Spanish speakers overwhelmingly use the set phrase llegar a casa for returning home.
Why is it just a casa instead of a la casa or a su casa?
Just like in English where we say "came home" instead of "came to the home," Spanish uses a casa without an article (la) or a possessive word (su) when referring to someone going to their own home. Saying a la casa would sound like you are referring to a physical building ("to the house") rather than the personal concept of "home."
Can I use llorando without the verb estar? I thought they always went together.
Yes! While you probably first learned words ending in -ando or -iendo (the gerund) paired with estar for ongoing actions (like está llorando for "she is crying"), they can also be used alone to describe how another action happens. Here, llorando acts like an adverb explaining the manner in which she arrived, exactly like the "-ing" form in English.