Ocultaron la verdad.

Ocultaron is the preterite of ocultar.

That tells you the action is seen as completed in the past: they hid / concealed the truth, and the sentence presents it as a finished event.

It is:

• 3rd person plural
• from the verb ocultar = to hide / conceal

So ocultaron can mean:

• they hid
• in some contexts, you all hid (with ustedes)

In this sentence, without more context, they hid the truth is the most natural reading.

Spanish often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed, because the verb ending already tells you the person and number.

Here, -aron shows that the subject is third person plural, so Spanish does not need ellos.

Compare:

• Ocultaron la verdad. = They hid the truth.
• Ellos ocultaron la verdad. = also correct, but now ellos adds emphasis, contrast, or clarity.

You might include ellos if you want to stress who did it:

• Ellos ocultaron la verdad, no nosotros.
  They hid the truth, not us.

In Spanish, abstract nouns often take the definite article when talking about a specific concept in a general, known sense.

So la verdad is the normal way to say the truth.

Here:

• la = the
• verdad = truth

You usually would not say Ocultaron verdad. That sounds incomplete or unnatural.

Other similar examples:

• Decir la verdad = to tell the truth
• Buscar la libertad = to seek freedom

Yes. Ocultar is a regular -ar verb in the preterite.

Its preterite forms are:

• yo oculté
• tú ocultaste
• él/ella/usted ocultó
• nosotros/as ocultamos
• vosotros/as ocultasteis
• ellos/ellas/ustedes ocultaron

So ocultaron follows the normal pattern for regular -ar verbs.

Yes, grammatically it can.

Ocultaron matches:

• ellos / ellas = they
• ustedes = you all

But for Spanish from Spain, the usual informal plural you all is vosotros, not ustedes.

So in Spain:

• vosotros ocultasteis = you all hid (informal)
• ustedes ocultaron = you all hid (formal)

Because this sentence has no subject pronoun, context decides the meaning. Still, they hid the truth is usually the default interpretation.

Both can mean to hide, but they are not always used in exactly the same way.

• ocultar often sounds more like to conceal, to keep from being known or seen
• esconder often sounds more like to hide something physically

So:

• Ocultaron la verdad. = very natural, because truth is something you conceal
• Escondieron la verdad. = possible, but often less natural in this context

A simple way to think about it:

• ocultar información / la verdad / un secreto
• esconder un objeto / dinero / una llave

There is overlap, but ocultar fits especially well with la verdad.

This is the most neutral and natural word order in Spanish:

verb + object

• Ocultaron la verdad.

You can change the order, but it usually adds emphasis or sounds more literary or marked.

For example:

• La verdad la ocultaron.
  This puts emphasis on the truth and can sound like It was the truth that they hid.

So the original sentence is the straightforward, standard version.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

oh-cool-TA-ron la ber-THAD
in most of Spain

A few details:

• ocultaron has the stress on -ta-
• verdad ends with -d, but in normal speech that final d can sound softer
• In most of Spain, z and soft c are pronounced like th in think, but this sentence does not contain those letters
• The v in verdad is pronounced like a Spanish b, not like an English v

More natural Spain-style pronunciation:

• ocultaron → o-cool-TA-ron
• la verdad → la ber-DAD

Not exactly.

• Ocultaron la verdad = They hid the truth
  This is the preterite, a completed past action.
• Han ocultado la verdad = They have hidden the truth
  This is the present perfect.

In many parts of Spain, the present perfect is often used for past actions connected to the present, especially with time expressions like:

• hoy = today
• esta semana = this week

So in Spain:

• Hoy han ocultado la verdad. = natural
• Ayer ocultaron la verdad. = natural

Both are past, but they are used in slightly different situations.

Yes.

In Ocultaron la verdad:

• ocultaron = the verb
• la verdad = the direct object, the thing that was hidden

You can test this by replacing it with a direct object pronoun:

• Ocultaron la verdad.
• La ocultaron. = They hid it.

That la stands for la verdad, which confirms it is the direct object.