le tardó vs tardó

Question

From what I see in the lesson these two should both work in Claudia xxxxx 2 minutos ….

Silvia Píriz · Accepted Answer

Hola Charlie M.
In this sentence the correct structure is:
Claudia tardó 2 días en recuperarse del viaje.
Here Claudia is the subject of the verb tardar, so the verb simply appears as “tardó”.
If we wanted to use the form “le tardó”, the structure would need to change. In that case we normally introduce the person with “A + person”, for example:
A Claudia le tardó 2 días recuperarse del viaje.
Here “recuperarse del viaje” functions as the subject of the sentence and “le” refers to Claudia as the person affected.
Since the exercise begins with “Claudia” as the subject, the correct option in this structure is “tardó”.
Saludos
Silvia