When diving into the history of famous patents and inventions, there is often controversy over who really came up with an idea first. To settle these debates, you can use a specific sentence structure to emphasize exactly who performed an action.
Emphasizing with "el que"
To highlight the person responsible for an action, use the structure: el que (the one who) + the action + ser (to be) + the person.
Make sure to match el que to the gender and number of the person you are emphasizing (el que, la que, los que, or las que). The verb ser generally matches the tense of the action itself.
| The one who devised the concept was the inventor. | El que ideó el concepto fue el inventor. |
| The one who claimed the discovery was the professor. | La que reivindicó el descubrimiento fue la profesora. |
| The ones who doubted the legitimate authorship were the investors. | Los que dudaron de la autoría legítima fueron los inversionistas. |
Emphasizing with "quien"
You can also use quien (who / the one who) instead of el que. This works exactly the same way and sounds slightly more formal, but it only changes for number: use quien for one person and quienes for multiple people.
| The one who has proven the legitimate authorship is the owner. | Quien tiene demostrada la autoría legítima es el dueño. |
| The ones who hid the plagiarism were the assistants. | Quienes ocultaron el plagio fueron los asistentes. |
Matching the tense
You can use these emphatic structures in any timeframe, as long as you conjugate the verb ser to match when the action takes place or will take place.
| The one who claims the patent of this discovery is the engineer. | El que reivindica la patente de este descubrimiento es el ingeniero. |
| The one who will have patented the machine by tomorrow will be the lawyer. | Quien habrá patentado la máquina para mañana será el abogado. |