Learn Spanish (Latin America): El gobierno, por su parte, no dijo nada. - The government, for its part, said nothing.

El gobierno, por su parte, no dijo nada.

The government, for its part, said nothing.

Breakdown of El gobierno, por su parte, no dijo nada.

Questions & Answers about El gobierno, por su parte, no dijo nada.

How does por su parte compare to topic framers from this lesson like en cuanto a?

Both help shift focus, but they fit into the sentence differently. You use en cuanto a (as for / regarding) at the beginning of a clause to introduce the subject: En cuanto al gobierno, no dijo nada. In contrast, por su parte (for its part) is usually placed between commas right after the subject to highlight a contrast with what another party just did.

Does the su in por su parte change depending on who is acting?

Yes, the possessive adjective must match the subject. Because el gobierno is a third-person singular noun, we use su. If you were talking about yourself, you would change it to match: yo, por mi parte, no dije nada (I, for my part, said nothing). For "we", it would be nosotros, por nuestra parte.

Why use the preterite dijo instead of the imperfect decía when "not saying anything" feels like an ongoing state?

The preterite dijo frames the government's silence as a specific, completed reaction to a single event (for example, the press asked for a comment today, and they declined). If you used the imperfect decía, it would sound like a background description of an ongoing situation: "the government wasn't saying anything (while the crisis was unfolding)."

As a refresher, is it absolutely necessary to use both no and nada in this sentence?