Please Help: Am I Saying this Right?

Question

Hi,

I would like someone to tell me if I am using the word "lo" properly in Spanish.

En el mundo de Gabriel García Márquez, es difícil distinguir entre lo extraño y lo mundano.

"In the world of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, it is difficult to distinguish between the strange and the mundane."

In that case, is the word "lo" appropriate, or am I supposed to another article like el, la, etc.? And do you think that my Spanish is overall a good translation of my English sentence?

Thanks for the help - I'm in Spanish 4 in college and need to do well on all the nitpicky grammar!

Great question StillLearning - Izanoni1, MAY 19, 2010

Answer 1

Hi Still learning,

This looks good to me. Distinguishing itself from the other definite articles (el and la) the neuter article, lo, can be placed before an adjective in order to express and abstract quality or idea (whereas el and la cannot perform this function). Here both "extraño" and "mundano" are adjectives that have been nominalized by the use of the neuter article.

Here is what the RAE (Diccionario panhispánico de dudas) has to say on this:

Por su parte, "lo" suele considerarse como artículo neutro por su capacidad de sustantivar adjetivos y determinadas oraciones de relativo: lo malo, lo que está mal; para muchos lingüistas se trata, en cambio, de un pronombre.

Muy apropriado - FELIZ77, MAY 19, 2010

Answer 2

En el mundo de Gabriel García Márquez, es difícil distinguir entre lo extraño y lo mundano.

Yes, that's a great way to use that "lo"! I think your translation is good too.

Answer 3

I'm just asking, why lo and not el?

because it is placed before an adjective to nominalize it - a function that neither of the other definite articles can perform. - Izanoni1, MAY 19, 2010