Breakdown of Fue la fotocopiadora la que dejó de funcionar ayer.
ser
to be
de
from / of
que
that / than
la
the (feminine)
dejar
to stop / to leave (something behind)
funcionar
to work / to function (machines, devices)
ayer
yesterday
la fotocopiadora
the photocopier
Questions & Answers about Fue la fotocopiadora la que dejó de funcionar ayer.
Why do we use la que instead of just que to say "that"?
In Spanish cleft sentences, when you emphasize a noun as the subject of the action, the relative pronoun usually needs a definite article to match it. Because fotocopiadora is feminine and singular, we use la que (literally "the one that"). Using el que, la que, los que, or las que is the standard way to emphasize who or what performed the action.
Why is the first verb fue (preterite) instead of era (imperfect) or es (present)?
In cleft sentences, the tense of the verb ser usually matches the tense of the main action. Because the machine stopped working yesterday (dejó is in the preterite), we use the preterite fue. If you were talking about a present habit, like "It is the photocopier that always breaks," both verbs would be in the present: Es la fotocopiadora la que siempre se rompe.
I always mix up how to say "to stop". Why use dejó de funcionar instead of paró de funcionar?
While parar means "to stop" in the sense of halting physical movement or pausing, the formula dejar de plus an infinitive is the most natural way to say that someone or something "stopped doing" an action entirely. For machines breaking down or ceasing to run, dejar de funcionar is the standard phrasing.
Does the emphasized element have to go in the middle of the sentence?
Not necessarily. You can flip the structure and say La fotocopiadora fue la que dejó de funcionar ayer. This translates closer to "The photocopier was the one that stopped working yesterday." However, starting with Fue is the most direct and common way to mirror the English emphasis of "It was [X] that..."
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