Breakdown of No dicen por qué asaltaron y secuestraron al hombre.
y
and
no
no, not
el hombre
the man
por qué
why
decir
to say, to tell
asaltar
to mug / to rob
secuestrar
to kidnap
al
personal 'a' + the (marks a human direct object)
Questions & Answers about No dicen por qué asaltaron y secuestraron al hombre.
Who exactly is the "they" doing the saying, mugging, and kidnapping in this sentence?
There is no specific "they." This sentence uses the impersonal third-person plural. By leaving out a subject pronoun like ellos, Spanish talks about actions done by unknown, generalized, or unimportant people. It is the natural way to express ideas like "People don't say why..." or "The news doesn't say why..."
Since we don't know who kidnapped the man, wouldn't it make sense to translate this using the passive voice?
Yes, absolutely! While English heavily relies on the passive voice for unknown subjects ("The man was mugged"), Spanish prefers to use this active, impersonal "they" form. So while asaltaron al hombre literally means "they mugged the man," translating it as "the man was mugged" perfectly captures the meaning.
Why is there an al before hombre?
This is a great place to remember the "personal a." Whenever a specific person is the direct object of a verb (meaning they are the one receiving the action), you must put an a before them. Since the man is the one being mugged and kidnapped, he needs the a. It then combines with el to become al.
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