Breakdown of El testigo declaró y la policía escribió la denuncia.
y
and
escribir
to write
la policía
the police
la denuncia
the police report
Questions & Answers about El testigo declaró y la policía escribió la denuncia.
What tense are declaró and escribió?
Both are in the preterite, the Spanish tense used for completed actions in the past.
- declaró = he/she declared / gave a statement / testified
- escribió = he/she wrote
They are both third-person singular forms:
- declarar → declaró
- escribir → escribió
So the sentence presents two finished past events:
- the witness gave a statement
- the police wrote the report/complaint
Why do declaró and escribió have accent marks?
The accent marks show that the stress falls on the last syllable:
- de-cla-RÓ
- es-cri-BIÓ
This is normal in many preterite forms of -ar and -ir verbs in the third person singular.
The accent also helps distinguish forms:
- declaro = I declare
- declaró = he/she declared
So the accent is not optional here; it is part of the correct spelling.
Why is it la policía escribió and not la policía escribieron?