Breakdown of Fue un simple error del político.
ser
to be
un
a, an, some
del
of the / from the / about the (topic)
el error
the mistake
simple
simple (mere, basic)
el político
the politician
Questions & Answers about Fue un simple error del político.
Why is simple placed before error instead of after it?
This is a case where adjective placement changes the meaning. When simple comes before the noun, it means mere (a mere error). If it were placed after the noun, like in un error simple, it would mean the error itself was uncomplicated or easy to fix.
Why use the preterite fue here instead of the imperfect era?
Fue (from ser) is used because the speaker is stating a completed fact about a specific event in the past. If they used era, it would sound more like they were setting the scene or describing an ongoing background situation.
Does the adjective simple change if the noun is feminine?
I have seen político used to mean political. How do we know it means politician here?
Político can be either an adjective (political) or a noun (politician). You can tell it is a noun here because it is preceded by the article el (hidden inside the contraction del, which is de plus el), making it mean of the politician.
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