Breakdown of El detective afirmó que la policía había detenido al sospechoso del asesinato.
del
from the / of the
que
that / than
la policía
the police
el sospechoso
the suspect
haber
(auxiliary) have
afirmar
to state
el detective
the detective
detener
to arrest
el asesinato
the murder
a
personal 'a' (marks a human direct object)
Questions & Answers about El detective afirmó que la policía había detenido al sospechoso del asesinato.
Why is the past perfect (había detenido) used in this sentence?
The main reporting verb, afirmó (stated), is in the past tense. When we use reported speech to talk about something that was said in the past, any actions that were already completed before that statement shift one step further back in time. It shifts to the past perfect (había detenido) to show the arrest happened before the detective spoke.
If we were reading the detective's exact, direct quote, what tense would he have used?
His original words would have been in either the preterite ("La policía detuvo al sospechoso") or the present perfect ("La policía ha detenido al sospechoso"). In reported speech, both of these tenses change to the past perfect (había detenido) when the reporting verb is in the past.
Why do we use al before sospechoso instead of just el?
This is a great example of the "personal a". When a specific person is the direct object of a verb—in this case, the person being arrested—you must put an a before them. The preposition a combines with the masculine article el (el sospechoso) to form the contraction al.
I thought "police officer" was el policía. Why is it la policía here?
When referring to the entire police force as an institution, the word is feminine: la policía. If you are talking about an individual male police officer, it is masculine (el policía), while an individual female officer is feminine (la policía). In this sentence, the detective is referring to the police force.
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