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Si alguien desaparece, la policía busca pistas.

Si alguien desaparece, la policía busca pistas.
If someone disappears, the police look for clues.
From Lesson 149:Indefinite pronouns for people (alguien, nadie)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of Si alguien desaparece, la policía busca pistas.

buscar
to look for
alguien
someone
la pista
clue
la policía
police
si
if
desaparecer
to disappear

Questions & Answers about Si alguien desaparece, la policía busca pistas.

Since the English translation says 'If someone disappears', could I also use alguien to mean 'anyone'?
Yes! In Spanish, alguien covers both 'someone' and 'anyone' in affirmative sentences and conditional statements like this one. If the sentence were negative ('If nobody disappears'), you would use nadie instead.
Why is the singular verb busca used with la policía? In English, 'the police' is usually plural.
In Spanish, la policía refers to the police force as a single institution, so it takes the singular 'he/she/it' verb ending. If you want to talk about multiple individual police officers, you would use the plural los policías.
Where is the word for 'for' in busca pistas?
The verb buscar means 'to look for' or 'to search for' all by itself. English speakers often try to add words like por or para after it, but Spanish doesn't need them. You just put the thing you are looking for directly after the verb.
Why doesn't the word Si have an accent mark here?
This is a great spelling rule to remember! Without an accent mark, si means 'if'. When it is written with an accent mark (sí), it means 'yes'. Since this is an 'if' statement, no accent is needed.

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