Breakdown of Полиция нашла спрятанные деньги.
деньги
money
найти
to find
полиция
police
спрятать
to hide (something)
Questions & Answers about Полиция нашла спрятанные деньги.
How is the participle спрятанные formed here?
It comes from the perfective verb спрятать (to hide). To form the past passive participle for most verbs ending in -ать, you drop the -ть and add -нный. This gives the base form спрятанный. As a full-form participle, it uses a double -нн-.
Why does спрятанные end in -ые in this sentence?
Because it acts like an adjective and must agree with the noun it modifies, деньги (money). Деньги is a plural-only noun, and in this sentence, it is the direct object (accusative case). For inanimate plural nouns, the accusative looks exactly like the nominative, so the participle takes the nominative/accusative plural ending -ые.
Could we use the short form спрятаны instead of спрятанные here?
No. The participle in this sentence is "attributive"—it sits directly next to the noun to describe it ("the hidden money"). Short-form participles are only used as the predicate of a sentence, which would mean rewriting it as Деньги были спрятаны (The money was hidden).
Why is the verb нашла in the feminine singular form, even though "police" is plural in English?