Breakdown of Fue el periodista quien lo mencionó ayer.
ser
to be
lo
it / him (direct object)
quien
whom / who (relative singular)
ayer
yesterday
el periodista
the journalist
mencionar
to mention
Questions & Answers about Fue el periodista quien lo mencionó ayer.
Why do we say Fue el periodista quien... instead of just El periodista lo mencionó ayer?
Both mean the general same thing, but using Fue... quien creates a "cleft sentence." We use this structure to add heavy emphasis to one specific part of the sentence. It is the exact equivalent of the difference in English between "The journalist mentioned it" and "It was the journalist who mentioned it" (implying it wasn't the police, the mayor, etc.).
Could I use que instead of quien in this sentence?
Why is fue in the preterite tense here?
In these emphatic sentences, the verb ser (to be) generally matches the tense of the main action verb. Since the mentioning happened yesterday and is a completed action in the past (preterite mencionó), we use the preterite fue (it was). If the sentence were "It is the journalist who mentions it," both would be in the present tense: Es el periodista quien lo menciona.
Wait, shouldn't a masculine noun end in "-o"? Why is it el periodista?
Words ending in -ista that refer to professions, beliefs, or roles (like periodista, dentista, artista) use the exact same spelling for both masculine and feminine forms. You only change the article to show the gender: el periodista refers to a male journalist, while la periodista refers to a female journalist.
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