Breakdown of La policía estaba protegiendo el hospital.
el hospital
the hospital
estar
to be (location/state)
la policía
the police
proteger
to protect
Questions & Answers about La policía estaba protegiendo el hospital.
Why does the Spanish sentence use the singular estaba when the English translation says "were"?
In Spanish, la policía (the police force) is a singular collective noun, much like "the family" or "the team." Because it is a singular entity, it takes the singular verb estaba. In English, we treat "the police" as a plural noun ("the police were"), which makes this a common trap for English speakers!
How is the past continuous formed in estaba protegiendo?
The past continuous is used to emphasize that an action was actively in progress at a specific moment in the past. To build it, you take the imperfect tense of estar (in this case, estaba because the subject is singular) and add the gerund, which is the Spanish equivalent of an "-ing" verb (here, protegiendo).
How do you form the gerund protegiendo from the verb proteger?
I've seen el policía before. Why is it la policía here?