Breakdown of El testigo confesó que había cambiado su versión.
su
his/her/its/their/your (formal)
que
that / than
el testigo
the witness
haber
(auxiliary) have
cambiar
to change
confesar
to confess
la versión
the version
Questions & Answers about El testigo confesó que había cambiado su versión.
Why do we use había cambiado (had changed) here instead of just the preterite?
This is the core of reported speech! The reporting verb confesó is in the past. When reporting what someone said, we shift their original verbs one step further back in time. If the witness originally said 'I changed' (cambié) or 'I have changed' (he cambiado), we report it using the past perfect: había cambiado (had changed).
If the witness was a woman, would the word change to la testiga?
Does the verb confesar have a stem change in this sentence?
No, confesar is an 'e' to 'ie' stem-changing verb in the present tense (like él confiesa), but it is completely regular in the preterite tense. That is why it is simply confesó.
Could su versión also mean 'her version' or 'their version'?
Yes! The possessive adjective su can mean his, her, your (formal), or their. Because the sentence uses the masculine article in el testigo, we know it translates to 'his version' here. If the sentence were about a female witness (la testigo), it would mean 'her version'.
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