Can someone explain how this clause works?
La firma a la que apodan Big Blue, -----------------------
The firm that was nicknamed Big Blue?
Does this mean that you can use noun + a la que + verb to refer to somewithing with the passive voice?
And why would it use apodan instead of apoda?
It's in the third paragraph of this article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/noticias/2011/06/110614_tecnologia_ibm_100_cumpleanos_nc.shtml
2 Answers
You start with a simple sentence:
[Ellos] apodan a la firma Big blue = They nicknamed the firm Big Blue
In Spanish the third person plural (they) is often used when you don't refer to someone in particular, like when you say in English "You have to wash the onions" but you don't have any "you" in mind. The effect is the same as an English passive: "the firm was nicknamed Big Blue", but Spanish generally prefers that "they".
Now you take another sentence:
La firma tiene mucho dinero = The firm has a lot of money
Both sentences have "firma" in common, and in the second one you want to specify what firm you are referring to, which is the one nicknamed Big Blue (literally, the one "they" nicknamed...). You start with
La firma...
and now you replace "firma" in the first sentence with the relative "que", so "a la firma" becomes "a la que". Notice that the preposition "a" and the article "la" form an indivisible phrase with "firma/que".
La firma a la que...
Now you just complete the sentence.
For apodan instead of apoda, think of it as the firm which they nicknamed Big Blue.
"la que" means which in this context. The "a" has been added because it's been personified by having been given a nickname. Instead of the passive voice, you need to think of your query in terms of relative pronouns. Try reading this reference section of Spanish dictionary.
http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/100020/relative-pronouns
