Breakdown of Alguien rompió el candado de la puerta.
de
from / of
la puerta
the door
romper
to break
alguien
someone
Questions & Answers about Alguien rompió el candado de la puerta.
Does the word alguien change depending on whether 'someone' is male or female?
If I want to say 'Nobody broke the padlock', do I just swap alguien for nadie?
Why is the verb rompió used here instead of rompía?
Rompió is the preterite (simple past) tense of romper (to break). We use the preterite here because breaking a padlock is a single, completed action that happened at a specific point in time. If you used the imperfect tense rompía, it would sound like someone 'was breaking' or 'used to break' the padlock.
Why do we say el candado de la puerta instead of just la puerta candado?
In English, we often put two nouns right next to each other (like 'door padlock'). In Spanish, you cannot stack nouns like this to describe something. You must use the preposition de (of) to link them, literally saying 'the padlock of the door'.