Breakdown of El hecho de que la despoblación destruya los pueblos es muy triste.
ser
to be
de
from / of
los
the (masculine plural)
triste
sad
muy
very
el pueblo
the town
que
that / than
destruir
to destroy
el hecho
the fact (de hecho: in fact)
la despoblación
the depopulation
Questions & Answers about El hecho de que la despoblación destruya los pueblos es muy triste.
Why is destruya in the subjunctive if el hecho de que means it is a stated fact?
Even though el hecho de que translates to 'the fact that', it does not guarantee the indicative mood. The trigger here is actually the end of the sentence: es muy triste. Because the main clause expresses an emotion or value judgment about the fact, the noun clause containing the fact must use the subjunctive.
Where does the y in destruya come from?
Does pueblos mean 'people' or 'towns' in this sentence?
While pueblo can sometimes mean 'a people' or a demographic group, here it refers to physical towns or rural villages. The context of despoblación (depopulation) makes it clear that the sentence is about rural areas losing their inhabitants.
Why do we need the article la before despoblación?
In Spanish, when you talk about an abstract concept or general category as the subject of a sentence, you must include the definite article. English drops the article for general concepts like 'depopulation', but Spanish requires la despoblación.
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