Breakdown of Dudo que el jurado absuelva a la acusada.
a
personal a (marks a person object)
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
el jurado
the jury
dudar
to doubt
el acusado
the accused
absolver
to acquit
Questions & Answers about Dudo que el jurado absuelva a la acusada.
Why is absuelva in the subjunctive instead of the indicative?
The phrase Dudo que (I doubt that) triggers the subjunctive. Because the speaker is expressing doubt rather than declaring a fact, the following verb (absolver) must be in the present subjunctive form, which is absuelva.
The English translation says 'will acquit', so why don't we use a future tense here?
Spanish generally uses the present subjunctive to talk about both the present and the future after triggers like Dudo que. You don't need a special future tense here; the present subjunctive absuelva naturally covers the future meaning of 'will acquit'.
What is the infinitive of absuelva and why does it have a ue?
The infinitive is absolver (to acquit or absolve). It has an o to ue stem change, just like volver (to return). This stem change carries over into the present subjunctive for all forms except the nosotros and vosotros forms.
Why is there an a right before la acusada?
This is the 'personal a'. Whenever a specific person is the direct object of a verb (the one receiving the action), Spanish requires an a before them. Since the jury is acquitting a specific person (la acusada), the a is required.
Is acusada a noun or a past participle here?
It is both! In Spanish, you can often take a past participle (like acusado or acusada) and put an article like el or la in front of it to use it as a noun. Here, la acusada simply means 'the accused woman'.
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