Breakdown of Durante la transmisión, el corresponsal confirmó que habían descubierto un video inédito.
un
a, an (masculine)
que
that / than
la
the (feminine)
confirmar
to confirm
descubrir
to discover
haber
(auxiliary) have
durante
during
el video
the video
la transmisión
the broadcast
el corresponsal
the correspondent
inédito
unreleased
Questions & Answers about Durante la transmisión, el corresponsal confirmó que habían descubierto un video inédito.
Why is habían descubierto (indicative) used here instead of the subjunctive?
The verb confirmar declares a fact or certainty, so it triggers the indicative mood. Even though the main verb is in the past (confirmó), the reporter is stating something they believe actually happened. If the main verb expressed doubt, like dudó que (doubted that), you would need the subjunctive here.
Does the word inédito mean the video was unedited?
No, this is a common false friend. Inédito actually means unreleased, unpublished, or unseen. If you wanted to say the video was unedited (meaning no cuts or changes were made), you would use a phrase like un video sin editar.
I've sometimes seen the word for video written with an accent mark (vídeo). Why doesn't it have one in this sentence?
In Latin America, the word is pronounced with the stress on the letter E and is written as video without an accent mark. In Spain, the stress falls on the I, so it is written as vídeo. Since you are focusing on Latin American Spanish, video is the standard spelling.
Why do we use the past perfect (habían descubierto) here instead of just the simple past (descubrieron)?
This sentence establishes a timeline of past events. The correspondent confirmed the news in the past (confirmó), but the discovery of the video happened even earlier than that. To clearly show that this action was completed before another past action, Spanish uses the past perfect, exactly matching the English translation.
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