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El gobierno niega que el ovni sea una mentira.

El gobierno niega que el ovni sea una mentira.
The government denies that the UFO is a lie.
From Lesson 160:Subjunctive for doubt (dudar que)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El gobierno niega que el ovni sea una mentira.

Why do we use sea instead of es here?
Sea is the present subjunctive form of ser. We use the subjunctive because the first part of the sentence, El gobierno niega que (The government denies that), expresses denial. Verbs of doubt, disbelief, and denial always trigger the subjunctive in the clause that follows them.
What exactly is an ovni and where does the word come from?
Ovni is the Spanish equivalent of "UFO". It is an acronym for objeto volador no identificado (unidentified flying object). Because the core noun in that phrase is objeto (a masculine word), the acronym ovni takes the masculine article el.
I know the verb for "to deny" is negar. Why is it spelled niega here?
Negar is an e-to-ie stem-changing verb in the present tense. For most forms (including the "he/she/it" form used here), the "e" in the stem changes to "ie". Since "the government" acts as a third-person singular subject, we use niega.
Could we say que el ovni sea mentira without the word una?
Yes! In Spanish, you will frequently hear es mentira (or in this case, sea mentira) without the article una. Dropping the article treats the word a bit more like an adjective meaning "untrue", while una mentira strictly means "a lie". Both are perfectly correct and natural in this sentence.

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