Llegar

Llegar

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “llegar”.

It’s a verb meaning “to arrive” or “to come”.

It comes from the Latin word plicare, meaning “to fold”. It came to mean “to arrive” by an analogy with the idea of folding something back on itself.

The Latin word plicare might not look much like Spanish “llegar”. Many Latin words underwent sound changes as Latin evolved into Spanish in the Iberian Peninsula. One common sound change was for Latin “pl” to become “ll” in Spanish. Here are a few other examples:

  • Latin pluvia, Spanish “lluvia” (“rain”). One related English word is “pluvial”, meaning “pertaining to rain”.
  • Latin pleno, Spanish “lleno” (“full”). One related English word is “plenty”.
  • Latin plorare, Spanish “llorar” (“to cry”). One related English word is “implore”.

“Llegar” is a regular verb that has the same conjugation pattern as other regular -ar verbs.

Voy a llegar tarde.

I am going to arrive late.

Cuando llegaron a Granada, se quedaron maravillados con la Alhambra.

When they arrived in Granada, they were amazed by the Alhambra.

Nosotros queremos llegar pronto.

We want to arrive early.

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