I'm trying to understand this sentence: 言ったのは少女のひとりだった。, which is translated
as "It was one of the girls who said it.".

I've understood the first 2 parts:

  * 言ったの = noun-ified (past tense of talking) = the talking that happened in the past
  * 少女のひとり = a singular girl

However, I don't understand the function of the だった.

[Tofugu says だった is a past tense marker](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-
grammar/datta/#:%7E:text=%E3%81%A0%E3%81%A3%E3%81%9F%20is%20a%20past%20tense%20marker%20for%20nouns%20and%20%E3%81%AA-
adjectives.), but here 言った is already past tense, so I don't see the purpose.

Tae Kim says だった means "something was something" but that interpretation
doesn't make sense here.

What is the purpose of the だった here?
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question
grammar particles
Purpose of だった when verb is already past tense?
言ったのは少女のひとり **だ** is also a valid sentence. It is understood as a statement of
a fact about a past event. 言ったのは少女のひとり **だった** means the same but it somewhat
sounds like it is describing the situation at the time when that event
happened.

[This](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/25376/43676) is partially related.

A similar question could be asked about the tense of a cleft sentence in
English. I found [this](https://english.stackexchange.com/q/85561/421317) but
it is closed as “too basic”. I don't think it is.
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answer