Breakdown of Leamos el memorándum; fue eso lo que él escondió.
ser
to be
él
he
leer
to read
eso
that (neuter)
Questions & Answers about Leamos el memorándum; fue eso lo que él escondió.
Why do we use fue instead of es at the start of the second clause?
This is a cleft sentence, which breaks a sentence into two parts to emphasize a specific element—in this case, eso (that). When making a cleft sentence about an event in the past, the verb ser usually matches the tense of the action. Since he hid it in the past (escondió), we use the preterite fue (it was) rather than the present es (it is).
Why do we use lo que instead of just que after eso?
In cleft sentences, the relative pronoun needs to match the element being emphasized. Because eso (that) is a neuter pronoun referring to an unspecified thing or concept (what was in the memo), we use the neuter relative pronoun lo que. It roughly translates to "that which" or "what" in this context.
Why is the verb leamos in the subjunctive instead of the regular present tense?
The verb leamos is being used as a nosotros (we) command, which translates to "Let's read." In Spanish, affirmative "Let's..." commands are formed using the present subjunctive. If you used the indicative leemos, it would simply mean the statement "we are reading" or "we read."
Why does memorándum have an accent mark?