Protegió su honor.

Protegió is the preterite form of proteger. It is third person singular, so it can mean:

• he protected
• she protected
• you protected (formal singular, usted)

The preterite is used for a completed action in the past.

Spanish often omits subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person and number.

So protegió already tells you the subject is he/she/usted. Spanish speakers usually only add él, ella, or usted if they want to:

• emphasize the subject
• contrast it with someone else
• avoid confusion

So Protegió su honor is a perfectly normal complete sentence.

The accent mark shows that the stress falls on the last syllable: pro-te-gió.

This is needed because, without the accent, a word ending in a vowel would normally be stressed on the second-to-last syllable in Spanish.

It is also part of the normal spelling pattern for many third-person singular preterite forms of -er and -ir verbs, such as:

• comió
• vivió
• protegió

Su is a possessive adjective. Here it can mean:

• his
• her
• its
• your (formal singular)
• sometimes their if the context allows it, though with a singular possessed noun it still stays su

So by itself, su does not tell you whose honor it was. You need the wider context.

In this kind of Spanish possessive, su agrees with the thing possessed, not with the possessor.

Here the possessed thing is honor, which is singular, so Spanish uses su.

Compare:

• su honor = his/her/your/their honor
• sus amigos = his/her/your/their friends

Notice that su / sus changes for number only. It does not show whether the owner is male or female.

In modern Spanish, a possessive like su usually replaces the article.

So Spanish says:

• su honor

not:

• el su honor

If you want a structure with an article, Spanish normally uses the possessive after the noun instead:

• el honor suyo

But that version is more emphatic or contrastive. The normal, neutral form is su honor.

Honor is masculine: el honor.

That is why, if you used an article, you would say:

• el honor
• un honor

Even though it ends in -or, that is normal, since many nouns ending in -or are masculine.

Also, the h in honor is silent.

Protegió and protegía are both past forms, but they are used differently.

• protegió = preterite, a completed action
• protegía = imperfect, an ongoing, repeated, or background action

So:

• Protegió su honor suggests a finished act: he/she defended or protected that honor at some point.
• Protegía su honor suggests something more ongoing or habitual: he/she was protecting honor, or used to protect it.

This is one of the most important past-tense contrasts in Spanish.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

pro-te-HYÓ su o-NOR

A few details:

• g before i in protegió sounds like the Spanish j sound. In Spain it is usually a stronger, throatier sound than English h.
• h in honor is silent.
• The stress is on -gió in protegió and on the second syllable of honor: o-NOR.

So the rhythm is:

pro-te-GIÓ su o-NOR
with the Spanish g/j sound in -gió.