Breakdown of El tramposo negó el dopaje; por consiguiente, descalificamos al participante.
negar
to deny
al
personal 'a' + the (marks a human direct object)
descalificar
to disqualify
el participante
the participant
el tramposo
the cheater
el dopaje
the doping
por consiguiente
therefore (consequently)
Questions & Answers about El tramposo negó el dopaje; por consiguiente, descalificamos al participante.
Why use por consiguiente here instead of a simpler word like entonces, and why does it take the indicative?
por consiguiente is a formal connector meaning "consequently" or "therefore." It is perfect for official contexts like enforcing sports rules. Like the other result connectors in this lesson, it introduces a factual outcome of the previous statement, so it triggers the indicative mood (descalificamos), not the subjunctive.
Since negó is in the past tense, could descalificamos also be in the past tense?
Absolutely. For regular -ar and -ir verbs, the nosotros form is exactly the same in both the present and the preterite (simple past) tenses. Even though the provided English translation uses the present tense ("we disqualify"), it could just as easily be translated as "we disqualified" given the past-tense context of the first half of the sentence.
Why do we say al participante and not just el participante?
This is a contraction of the "personal a" and the masculine article el (a + el = al). Because the direct object of the verb descalificamos (the one being disqualified) is a specific person, Spanish requires you to put an a in front of it.
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