Word
El sospechoso confesó que amenazaba al juez.
Meaning
The suspect confessed that he was threatening the judge.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of El sospechoso confesó que amenazaba al juez.
al
to the
que
that / than
el sospechoso
suspect
el juez
the judge
Questions & Answers about El sospechoso confesó que amenazaba al juez.
Why is amenazaba in the imperfect tense here instead of the preterite?
This is a classic example of reported speech. The suspect's original words in the moment were likely in the present tense: I am threatening the judge (amenazo al juez). Because the reporting verb is in the past (confesó), the original present tense verb takes a step back in time and becomes the imperfect (amenazaba).
Why does the sentence use al juez instead of just el juez?
The word al is a contraction of the preposition a and the article el. The a used here is the personal a, which Spanish requires whenever the direct object of a verb is a specific person or pet. Since the judge is a specific person receiving the threat, we must use a before el juez.
Since amenazaba can mean I was threatening or he/she was threatening, how do we know who did it?
Context usually tells us! Here, it makes the most sense that the suspect is confessing to his own actions. However, without a subject pronoun, it could technically mean he confessed that someone else was threatening the judge. If the speaker wanted to remove all doubt, they could add a pronoun: confesó que él amenazaba al juez.
Is the word juez related to the English word judge?