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Spanish (Latin America)

### Emphasizing Information

When trying to get to the bottom of an office mystery, you often need to emphasize exactly *who* did something, *when* it happened, or *where*. In Spanish, you can do this using cleft sentences (*oraciones hendidas*).

The structure is simple: a conjugated form of the verb **ser** + the information you want to emphasize + a relative pronoun or adverb.

### Emphasizing Things

To emphasize a specific noun, use **el que**, **la que**, **los que**, or **las que** (the one that / those that) to agree with the noun's gender and number. The verb **ser** usually matches the tense of the event you are describing (such as **fue** for a past event).

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### Emphasizing Places and Times

When focusing on a location, use the relative adverb **donde** (where). For time expressions, use **cuando** (when).

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### Emphasizing People

When pointing the finger at someone, you can use **el que / la que**, or you can use **quien / quienes** (who). If the emphasized person is a subject pronoun like **tú** or **yo**, the verb **ser** must be conjugated to match it (e.g., **fuiste tú**, **fui yo**).

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### Emphasizing Ideas or Concepts

If the focus of your sentence is an abstract idea, a situation, or a general concept rather than a specific physical noun, use the neutral relative pronoun **lo que**.

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### Keeping Prepositions

Sometimes the emphasized part of the sentence naturally requires a preposition, such as the personal **a**. When this happens, the preposition stays right next to the emphasized word (after **ser**), and you will often see it repeated before the relative pronoun.

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Emphasizing information (fue... quien)

adjective

adverb

auxiliary verb

conjunction

determiner

expression

interjection

noun

numeral

prep

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Definite articles and 'to be' (el, la, soy)

Masculine and feminine pairs (el hermano, la hermana)

Basic sentences and negation (no)

Indefinite articles (un, una)

Formal and informal you (tú vs. usted)

Plural pronouns and the verb to be (somos, son)

Making nouns plural (-s, -es)

Plural articles (los, las, unos, unas)

Noun gender exceptions

Adjective agreement

Invariable adjectives

State and location (estar)

Ser vs. estar

There is / there are (hay)

Hay vs. estar

To have (tener)

Possession (de)

Possessive adjectives (mi, tu, su)

Regular -ar verbs

Yes/No questions

What and who (qué, quién)

Regular -er verbs

Regular -ir verbs

Asking where (dónde, adónde)

How, when, and why (cómo, cuándo, por qué)

How much and how many (cuánto)

Days of the week

Going to a place (ir a)

Preposition contractions (al, del)

In and by (en)

With me and with you (conmigo, contigo)

Prepositional pronouns (mí, ti)

Conjunctions (y, o, pero)

Giving reasons (porque)

Stem-changing verbs (e to ie)

Stem-changing verbs (o to ue)

Stem-changing verbs (e to i)

Irregular yo forms (hago, salgo)

To know (saber vs. conocer)

Weather expressions (hace, está)

Desires and plans (querer)

Ability and requests (poder)

Obligations (tener que)

Expressing likes (me gusta)

Plural likes (me gustan)

Verbs like gustar (encantar, doler)

Very vs. a lot (muy, mucho)

Numbers 0 to 15 (cero, uno, dos…)

Numbers 16 to 31 (dieciséis, veinte…)

Numbers 30 to 1000 (treinta, cien, mil)

Months of the year (enero, febrero, marzo)

Seasons and dates (el dos de mayo)

Telling time (es la..., son las...)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (primero, segundo, tercero)

Reflexive pronouns and verbs (me, te, se, nos)

Direct object pronouns (lo, la, los, las)

The near future (ir a)

The present continuous (estar + -ando, -iendo)

Near demonstrative adjectives (este, esta, estos, estas)

Medium demonstrative adjectives (ese, esa, esos, esas)

Comparatives of inequality (más / menos ... que)

Comparatives of equality (tan ... como)

Indefinite and negative pronouns (algo, nada, alguien, nadie)

Affirmative commands

Far demonstratives (aquel, aquella)

Possessive pronouns (el mío, el tuyo)

Shortened indefinite adjectives (algún, ningún)

Adverbs of quantity (demasiado, bastante)

Adverbs of frequency (a menudo, a veces)

Adverb formation (-mente)

Exclamations (¡Qué...!)

Irregular comparatives (mejor, peor, mayor, menor)

Relative superlatives (el más... de)

Adjective intensification (-ísimo)

Indirect object pronouns

Pronoun placement with infinitives

Double object pronouns (me lo, te la)

The 'se lo' rule (se lo, se la)

Impersonal statements (se)

Impersonal obligation (hay que)

Personal obligation (deber)

Starting actions (empezar a)

Finishing and quitting actions (terminar de, dejar de)

Repeating actions (volver a)

Continuing actions (seguir + gerundio)

Question	Answer
the photocopier	la fotocopiadora
It was the photocopier that stopped working yesterday.	Fue la fotocopiadora la que dejó de funcionar ayer.
the memo	el memorándum
It was near the photocopier where I found the memo.	Fue cerca de la fotocopiadora donde encontré el memorándum.
Let's read the memo; that was what he hid.	Leamos el memorándum; fue eso lo que él escondió.
the server	el servidor
It was yesterday when they attacked the server.	Fue ayer cuando atacaron el servidor.
to access	acceder
It was you who tried to access the server!	¡Fuiste tú el que intentó acceder al servidor!
It was upon arriving when the guard was able to access.	Fue al llegar cuando el guardia pudo acceder.
to unplug	desenchufar
It was the assistant who unplugged the photocopier.	Fue el asistente quien desenchufó la fotocopiadora.
It was today when I saw her unplug the machine.	Fue hoy cuando la vi desenchufar la máquina.
to manipulate / to tamper with	manipular
It was the file that they managed to tamper with.	Fue el archivo lo que lograron manipular.
It was at midnight when someone tampered with the lock.	Fue a la medianoche cuando alguien manipuló la cerradura.
to implicate	implicar
Is it the supervisor whom this evidence implicates?	¿Es al supervisor a quien implica esta prueba?
It was them who tried to implicate the manager.	Fueron ellos los que intentaron implicar al gerente.
the shredder	la trituradora
It is the new shredder that we need to use.	Es la trituradora nueva la que necesitamos usar.
to shred	triturar
It was in the shredder where he started to shred the papers.	Fue en la trituradora donde empezó a triturar los papeles.
Let's stop shredding; it is now when we must read them.	Dejemos de triturar; es ahora cuando debemos leerlos.
the stapler	la grapadora
It was my stapler that disappeared yesterday.	Fue mi grapadora la que desapareció ayer.
It was him who hid the stapler in the drawer.	Fue él quien escondió la grapadora en el cajón.