Breakdown of La mujer respondió que no había escuchado la coartada del sospechoso.
no
no, not
escuchar
to listen
la mujer
the woman
del
from the / of the
que
that / than
responder
to answer, to reply
el sospechoso
suspect
haber
(auxiliary) have
la coartada
the alibi
Questions & Answers about La mujer respondió que no había escuchado la coartada del sospechoso.
Why do we use the past perfect (había escuchado) here instead of just saying she didn't hear it (no escuchó)?
This is because of reported speech! The main verb respondió is in the past. If the woman originally said "I didn't hear it" (no escuché) or "I haven't heard it" (no he escuchado), that action gets pushed one step further back into the past when we report it to someone else. So, it becomes the past perfect: había escuchado (had not heard).
Since había escuchado can mean "I had heard", "he had heard", or "she had heard", how do we know who didn't hear the alibi?
We rely on the context of the sentence. The first half tells us la mujer (the woman) answered. Since no new person is mentioned after que (that), it is understood she is still the subject of the second half. If she were talking about someone else, you would include a pronoun for clarity, like que él no había escuchado (that he hadn't heard).
Does the word coartada change gender if the suspect is male?
No, la coartada (the alibi) is a feminine noun and its gender never changes, regardless of who it belongs to. That is why it is la coartada del sospechoso even though the suspect here is a man.
A quick refresher: why is it del sospechoso instead of de el sospechoso?
Whenever the preposition de (of) is followed right away by the masculine article el (the), they must combine to form the mandatory contraction del. This translates to "of the" or, in this case, creates the possessive "the suspect's".
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