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Alguien rompió el candado de la puerta.

Alguien rompió el candado de la puerta.
Someone broke the padlock of the door.
From Lesson 150:Indefinite pronouns for people (alguien, nadie)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of Alguien rompió el candado de la puerta.

de
from / of
la puerta
the door
romper
to break
alguien
someone
el candado
the padlock

Questions & Answers about Alguien rompió el candado de la puerta.

Does the word alguien change depending on whether 'someone' is male or female?
No, alguien is an indefinite pronoun that is completely gender-neutral and never changes form. It is always treated as a singular subject, which is why the verb rompió is in the 'he/she/it' form.
If I want to say 'Nobody broke the padlock', do I just swap alguien for nadie?
Yes! You would say Nadie rompió el candado de la puerta. Since nadie (nobody) is the subject and comes before the verb, you do not need to add no. However, if you move nadie after the verb, you must use a double negative: No rompió nadie el candado de la puerta.
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'.

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