Breakdown of Fue el titular el que había empezado el escándalo.
ser
to be
empezar
to start / to begin
que
that / than
haber
(auxiliary) have
el titular
the headline
el escándalo
the scandal
Questions & Answers about Fue el titular el que había empezado el escándalo.
Why do we use el que here instead of just que?
This is a cleft sentence used for emphasis. While English just says 'that' ('It was the headline that...'), Spanish often uses el que (the one that) to link the emphasized part (el titular) with the rest of the sentence. You can think of it as 'It was the headline, the one that had started the scandal.'
Would el que change if the emphasized word was feminine or plural?
Yes! The relative pronoun has to match the noun it refers to. If the sentence was about a magazine (la revista), it would be: Fue la revista la que había empezado el escándalo. If it was about the newspapers (los periódicos), it would be: Fueron los periódicos los que habían empezado el escándalo. Notice that fue also changes to the plural fueron when the focused element is plural!
Does titular mean 'title' here?
It means 'headline' (like in a newspaper or news broadcast). The word for the title of a book or movie is título. Titular can also refer to the 'holder' or 'owner' of an account or position, but in the context of a scandal, a news headline makes the most sense.
Why do we use the preterite fue with the past perfect había empezado?
We use the past perfect (había empezado) for the action that happened further back in the past: the starting of the scandal. We use the preterite (fue) to state the definitive, factual conclusion made after the fact. The headline had already done the damage before it was identified as the cause.
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