Learn Spanish (Latin America): Ella confesó que había leído el documento confidencial. - She confessed that she had read the confidential document.

The verb confesar (to confess) is a verb of declaration or communication, similar to decir (to say) or afirmar (to affirm). In affirmative sentences, it declares a fact or reality as the subject sees it, so it takes the indicative. If the sentence were negative, like Ella no confesó que..., it could trigger the subjunctive to express doubt or uncertainty about whether she actually read it.

Why do we use the past perfect tense (había leído) in this sentence?

The past perfect, also called the pluperfect, is used to describe an action that happened before another action in the past. Because her act of reading the document occurred before the moment she confessed it (which is already in the past tense with confesó), había leído is used to make that timeline clear.

Why does the past participle leído have an accent mark?

The accent mark forces a break between the strong vowel e and the weak vowel i, separating them into two different syllables. Without the accent, the rules of Spanish pronunciation would blend them into a single syllable, known as a diphthong. The accent tells you to pronounce it as three distinct syllables: le-í-do.

Can I place the adjective before the noun and say el confidencial documento?