El código PIN protege el número de teléfono.

to protect

Breakdown of El código PIN protege el número de teléfono.

• el código PIN: the PIN code
• el número de teléfono: the phone number

Questions & Answers about El código PIN protege el número de teléfono.

Why are there so many els in the sentence?

Spanish uses the definite article el much more often than English does.

In El código PIN protege el número de teléfono:

• El código PIN = the PIN code
• el número de teléfono = the phone number

In English, you might sometimes drop the, depending on context, but in Spanish it is very normal to keep it with nouns like these.

Also, both código and número are masculine singular nouns, so they take el.

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Why is it protege and not proteger?

Protege is the conjugated verb.
Proteger is the infinitive, meaning to protect.

Here, the subject is El código PIN, which is third-person singular, so the verb must match it:

• proteger = to protect
• protege = it protects / he protects / she protects

So:

• El código PIN protege... = The PIN code protects...

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What is the subject of the sentence?