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Fue él quien escondió la grapadora en el cajón.

Fue él quien escondió la grapadora en el cajón.
It was him who hid the stapler in the drawer.
From Lesson 345:Emphasizing information (fue... quien)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Fue él quien escondió la grapadora en el cajón.

Why is the verb ser in the preterite tense (fue) here instead of the present tense (es)?
In Spanish cleft sentences, the verb ser usually matches the tense of the main action. Because the hiding happened in the past (escondió), we use the past tense fue to say "It was him." You will sometimes hear native speakers use es anyway, but matching the tense is the standard rule.
Could we use que instead of quien in this sentence?
Yes, Fue él que escondió la grapadora is perfectly valid and very common. However, when the emphasized element is a person, using quien (or quienes for plural) is highly encouraged in both speech and writing as it sounds a bit more precise.
In English we say "It was him" using an object pronoun. Why does Spanish use the subject pronoun él?
In Spanish, the pronoun that follows ser in this type of structure must match the role that person plays in the rest of the sentence. Since he is the subject who performed the action of hiding the stapler, you must use the subject pronoun él.
Does the word cajón just mean a big box, since it comes from caja?
While the suffix -ón often means "big," cajón is the specific word for a drawer in a desk or dresser. It can also mean a large wooden crate, but in an office or home context like this one, it almost always means a drawer.

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