Breakdown of Sinceramente, él acababa de aceptar ese enfoque superficial.
él
he
ese
that (masculine)
acabar de
to have just
aceptar
to accept
Questions & Answers about Sinceramente, él acababa de aceptar ese enfoque superficial.
Does Sinceramente mean that he accepted the approach in a sincere way?
No, the comma gives it away. Here, Sinceramente is a speaker attitude marker. It modifies the entire sentence, telling us how the speaker feels about what they are saying (meaning 'Honestly, [he did this]'). If it came after the verb without a comma, it would be an adverb of manner meaning he accepted it sincerely.
Why is the imperfect tense used for acababa instead of the preterite?
The phrase acabar de + infinitive is a special case. When you use it in the imperfect (acababa de), it means someone 'had just' done something at a specific point in the past. If you used the preterite (acabó de), it would lose that 'just happened' feeling and instead mean he completely 'finished' accepting it.
I usually see enfoque used for the 'focus' of a camera. How does it mean 'approach' here?
While enfoque literally refers to bringing a lens into focus, in abstract contexts it is the standard Spanish word for an 'approach', 'angle', or 'perspective' on a topic, problem, or project.
Why include the subject pronoun él when Spanish usually drops them?