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Habiendo escuchado el testimonio, el tribunal cerró el caso el martes.

Habiendo escuchado el testimonio, el tribunal cerró el caso el martes.
Having heard the testimony, the court closed the case on Tuesday.
From Lesson 303:The perfect gerund (habiendo)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Habiendo escuchado el testimonio, el tribunal cerró el caso el martes.

How does habiendo escuchado work here, and could we just say después de escuchar?
Habiendo escuchado is the perfect gerund, meaning "having heard." It emphasizes that hearing the testimony was completely finished before the court closed the case. You could also say después de escuchar (after hearing), which is more common in casual, everyday speech. However, the perfect gerund sounds more formal and is frequently used in written, journalistic, or legal contexts like this one.
If the subject were plural, like "the judges" instead of el tribunal, would habiendo escuchado change to match?
No, it stays exactly the same. Gerunds (words ending in -ando or -iendo) and past participles (like escuchado) never change for gender or number when they form a compound verb structure. Even if the subject were feminine or plural, it would still be habiendo escuchado.
Is there a difference between using el tribunal and la corte for "the court"?
They are often used interchangeably, but el tribunal usually refers to a specific panel of judges or a lower trial court that actively hears a case. La corte often refers to the broader judicial institution or a higher court, like the Supreme Court (la Corte Suprema). In this sentence, el tribunal perfectly captures the specific group of judges who heard the testimony.
Why does the sentence use el martes instead of translating "on" to say en martes?
This is a quick refresher from earlier levels: in Spanish, you never use en to say "on a specific day." You always use the masculine definite article instead. So, "on Tuesday" translates simply to el martes. If it were something happening every Tuesday, you would use los martes.

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