ELONIO
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El ministro intentó ocultar la noticia.

El ministro intentó ocultar la noticia.
The minister tried to hide the news.
From Lesson 286:Referring to situations (lo de)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El ministro intentó ocultar la noticia.

If we already know what happened, how could we refer to "the news about the minister" using the grammar from this lesson?
You could say lo del ministro. This translates to "the matter concerning the minister" or "the minister's situation." It is a natural way to refer to a known event without repeating the exact noun. Notice that de + el combines into the contraction del.
Why isn't there a preposition like a between intentó and ocultar?
The verb intentar (to try) connects directly to an infinitive verb without a preposition. English speakers often want to add a or de because of the "to" in "to hide," but intentó ocultar is complete on its own. If you used the synonym tratar instead, you would need a preposition: trató de ocultar.
"News" ends in an "s" in English. Why is noticia singular here?
In Spanish, una noticia is a single piece of news or a specific news story. Because the minister is hiding one specific story, it is singular. If he were hiding the daily news broadcast or multiple stories, it would be plural: las noticias.
Why is intentó in the preterite tense rather than the imperfect (intentaba)?
Using the preterite intentó shows that this was a specific, completed attempt to hide the news. If the sentence used intentaba, it would mean he "was trying" to hide it over a continuous period, setting a background scene rather than reporting a completed action.

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