Breakdown of El presentador preguntó si el guardia había relatado el suceso.
preguntar
to ask
el guardia
the guard
haber
(auxiliary) have
si
if
Questions & Answers about El presentador preguntó si el guardia había relatado el suceso.
Why is it el guardia instead of la guardia, considering the word ends in -a?
The word guardia changes meaning based on its article. La guardia refers to the abstract concept of being on guard, the watch, or a collective police force. El guardia refers to a specific male guard or police officer. If the guard were a woman, she would also be la guardia, but context would tell you the speaker means a person rather than the group.
Suceso looks like "success". Is that what it means here?
No, this is a classic false friend. Suceso means an event, incident, or happening, coming from the verb suceder, which means to happen or occur. If you want to talk about a "success" in Spanish, you must use the word éxito.
Why do we use the past perfect (había relatado) here instead of the preterite (relató)?
This sentence is an example of reported speech. Because the introductory verb (preguntó) is already in the past, the action being asked about must be shifted one step further back into the past. Just like in English, we use the past perfect (había relatado) to clearly establish that the guard's recounting happened before the anchor asked about it.
Could I use relatar to mean "relate" as in "I relate to that person"?