Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Esa noticia me produjo una emoción rara y también mucha sorpresa. - That news caused a strange emotion in me and also a lot of surprise.

So Esa noticia me produjo… is literally “That piece of news produced in me…”, which we’d translate more naturally as “That news made me feel…” / “That news caused me…”.

Spanish usually marks the person who experiences an emotion with an indirect object pronoun (me, te, le, nos, os, les):

La noticia me produjo miedo. – The news caused me fear / made me feel afraid.
Su comentario le produjo risa. – His comment made him/her laugh.

Without me, you’d just be saying “That news caused a strange emotion and also a lot of surprise”, with no indication who felt it.

Why is it produjo and not produció?

Producir is irregular in the preterite (past simple). The third person singular form is:

él / ella / usted produjo (not produció)

Some key preterite forms of producir:

yo produje
tú produjiste
él / ella produjo
nosotros produjimos
vosotros produjisteis
ellos / ellas produjeron

So Esa noticia me produjo… = “That news caused (for me)…” in the past.

Why do we use the preterite (produjo) and not the imperfect (producía)?

The preterite (produjo) is used for a completed event in the past: a specific piece of news that caused a reaction at a particular moment.

Esa noticia me produjo una emoción rara…
→ That single piece of news, at that time, caused that reaction.

The imperfect (producía) would suggest something ongoing, repeated or background:

Esa noticia me producía una emoción rara cada vez que la recordaba.
→ That news used to cause me a strange emotion every time I remembered it.

In your sentence, we’re talking about one specific moment, so preterite is the natural choice.

What is the function of esa in esa noticia, and how is it different from esta or aquella?

Esa is a demonstrative adjective meaning “that” (feminine singular) and it must agree with noticia (also feminine singular).

Rough guideline for demonstratives in Spain:

esta noticia – this piece of news (close to the speaker in time, space, or mentally)
esa noticia – that piece of news (a bit more distant, maybe just mentioned, or belonging more to the listener’s “space”)
aquella noticia – that piece of news over there / back then (more distant in space or time, or something now “far away” in memory)

In practice, este/esta vs ese/esa is the main contrast. Aquel/aquella is used less often and tends to feel more distant or a bit more formal/literary.

How do I know noticia and emoción are feminine? Why esa noticia, una emoción rara and not ese / un?

In Spanish, articles and adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun:

noticia is feminine → esa noticia (that piece of news)
emoción is feminine → una emoción rara (a strange emotion)

Patterns that help:

Nouns ending in -ción / -sión are almost always feminine:
- la emoción, la información, la situación, la decisión
noticia ends in -a, and many (not all) -a nouns are feminine:
- la casa, la mesa, la noticia

So we say:

esa noticia (not ese noticia)
una emoción rara (not un emoción raro)

Why is the adjective after the noun: una emoción rara and not una rara emoción?

In Spanish, the default position of descriptive adjectives is after the noun:

una emoción rara = a strange/unusual emotion
una casa grande = a big house

You can say una rara emoción, but that sounds more literary or rhetorical, and the nuance shifts slightly:

una emoción rara – neutral: an emotion which is strange/unusual.
una rara emoción – more poetic / emphatic: a special, unusual kind of emotion, almost highlighting its uniqueness or rarity.

For everyday speech, noun + adjective (una emoción rara) is the normal word order.

Does rara mean “rare” or “weird”? Is it a false friend?

Raro / rara is a bit of a false friend:

It can mean “rare” in the sense of uncommon / not frequent:
- Es un fenómeno raro. – It’s a rare phenomenon.
Very often in everyday speech it means “strange / weird / odd”:
- Me pareces un poco raro hoy. – You seem a bit weird / off today.

In una emoción rara, the most natural translation is “a strange / odd emotion” rather than “a rare emotion” (unless the context clearly talks about statistical rarity).

What does mucha sorpresa mean exactly? Why is there mucha and no article?

Sorpresa means “surprise”, and mucha means “a lot of / much / lots of”.

mucha sorpresa ≈ “a lot of surprise” / “a great deal of surprise”

There’s no article because mucho/a + noun usually works like English “a lot of + noun”, which also doesn’t take an article:

mucha agua – a lot of water
mucho ruido – a lot of noise
mucha sorpresa – a lot of surprise

So …y también mucha sorpresa = “…and also a lot of surprise.” It’s quite natural in Spanish even if English prefers “a lot of surprise” less often and might rephrase as “and it really surprised me”.

Why is it mucha sorpresa and not mucho sorpresa?

Again, it’s gender agreement:

sorpresa is feminine → we use mucha
If the noun were masculine, we’d say mucho

Examples:

mucho frío (masculine) – a lot of cold
mucha alegría (feminine) – a lot of joy
mucha sorpresa (feminine) – a lot of surprise

Is me a direct object or an indirect object in me produjo? Could I say “Esa noticia produjo me…”?

In Esa noticia me produjo una emoción rara…, the structure is:

Esa noticia – subject
me – indirect object (the experiencer: to/for me)
una emoción rara y también mucha sorpresa – direct object (what was produced/caused)

So me is an indirect object pronoun.

You cannot say ✗ produjo me in Spanish. Clitic pronouns like me, te, le, nos, os, les normally go:

before a conjugated verb: me produjo
or attached to the end of an infinitive/gerund/affirmative command:
- producirme, produciéndome, produzcame (formal command)

So:

Correct: Esa noticia me produjo…
Incorrect: Esa noticia produjo me…

What is the role of también in y también mucha sorpresa? Could it go somewhere else?

También means “also / too / as well”. Here it adds another effect that the news caused:

una emoción rara
y también mucha sorpresa → and also a lot of surprise

Other possible positions (all grammatical, with slight rhythmic/emphasis differences):

Esa noticia me produjo una emoción rara y mucha sorpresa también.
Esa noticia también me produjo una emoción rara y mucha sorpresa.

The original …una emoción rara y también mucha sorpresa is very natural, and también clearly attaches to mucha sorpresa, emphasising that on top of the strange emotion, there was surprise as well.

Does noticia mean “news” in general or “a piece of news”?

Noticia in the singular usually means “a piece of news / a bit of news / a news item”:

Tengo una noticia para ti. – I have some news / a piece of news for you.

For “the news” as what you watch on TV or hear on the radio, Spanish usually uses the plural:

las noticias – the news (programme / bulletins)
- Veo las noticias cada noche. – I watch the news every night.

So Esa noticia here is best understood as “that piece of news”.

Could I say this sentence in another common way, for example with sorprender instead of producir?

Yes. Native speakers might express the same idea in several ways. For example:

Esa noticia me produjo una emoción rara y mucha sorpresa.
Esa noticia me sorprendió mucho y me hizo sentir algo raro.
Esa noticia me causó una emoción rara y mucha sorpresa.
Esa noticia me dio una emoción rara y mucha sorpresa. (more colloquial, some regions)

Producir sounds a bit more formal or neutral, like “to cause / to bring about”.
Sorprender focuses more directly on the surprise:

Esa noticia me sorprendió mucho. – That news surprised me a lot.

Your original sentence is perfectly natural and clear, especially in more careful or written Spanish.