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Che cosa facevi per indagare sul sospettato?

Che cosa facevi per indagare sul sospettato?
What were you doing to investigate the suspect?
From Lesson 108:The past progressive (stavo mangiando)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Che cosa facevi per indagare sul sospettato?

Since this lesson is about the past progressive, why does this sentence use facevi instead of stavi facendo?
In Italian, the regular imperfect tense (imperfetto), like facevi, is often used to translate 'were doing'. While you can use stavi facendo to heavily emphasize that you were in the exact middle of the action, facevi is a very natural and common way to express ongoing past actions without needing the extra verb.
Why is there a per before indagare?
When an English infinitive like 'to investigate' actually means 'in order to investigate' (showing the purpose or goal of an action), Italian requires per followed by the infinitive verb.
Why is it sul sospettato rather than just il sospettato?
The verb indagare (to investigate) pairs with the preposition su (on/about). To say 'investigate the suspect', Italians literally say 'investigate on the suspect'. Since sospettato takes the article il, su and il combine to make the word sul.
Is sospettato a verb or a noun here?
It functions as a noun here meaning 'the suspect', but it is built from the past participle of the verb sospettare (to suspect). Italian often creates nouns out of past participles just by adding an article in front of them, like il sospettato (the suspected person).

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