Why the 'la' in this phrase?

Question

What is the 'la' in this phrase? I was watching telemundo last night and this was the description for one of the shows.

No hay apuesta más peligrosa que la del juego del amor.

Answer 1

la is a pronoun referring to apuesta already stated in the sentence.

So if the noun where masculine it would be "el". For example, No hay juego más peligroso que el del juego del amor. - MrFreeze1125, Jul 16, 2010

It's la que (that which)without the que (which) if that helps you any. substitute ésa or aquélla and truncate the rest of the sentence if it helps to see its function. - 0074b507, Jul 16, 2010

Yes, you are correct concerning the masculine usage. When the thing referred to is abstract then you use lo. - 0074b507, Jul 16, 2010

What about this? No hay nada más peligroso que lo ... - MrFreeze1125, Jul 16, 2010

That is correct MrFreeze. - Mokay, Jul 16, 2010

Also: No hay juego más peligroso que el del amor. No need to repeat "juego". - Mokay, Jul 16, 2010

Answer 2

Actually, I could be wrong, but I think la is an article (the) in this case...believe it or not.

You could think of it as...

No hay apuesta más peligrosa que la (apuesta) del juego del amor.

I was less certain until I saw Mokay's example (Mokay is a native Spanish speaker...so his example is correct Spanish)...

No hay juego más peligroso que el del amor

Compare this with the opening example....

No hay apuesta más peligrosa que la del juego del amor.

We can see that la and el are performing the same grammatical function in the two sentences. Let's assume, for now, that they are pronouns. Well, el, when it is a pronoun, can be a subject or an object of a preposition but can never be a direct object (also, it's really él when it's a pronoun). La, when it is a pronoun, can only be a direct object (the true counter-part to él as a pronoun is ella). The only way el and la can perform the same grammatical function is when they are used as articles (the).

You can watch my own struggle with this issue here.

Also: No hay juego más peligroso que el (juego) del amor. - webdunce, Jul 17, 2010