Que or lo que before 'hacer'

Question

Hello,

A native speaker translated this sentence for me.
I was wondering why it's not 'lo que'?

"No sé qué hice." I don't know what I did.

Thank you

Answer 1

In this case it would be more like Veroz's example: "lo que me hiciste el otro día estuvo mal"

My context: I don't know what I did (to upset you). So then, wouldn't that mean it's referring to a specific situation or thing that I did wrong?

You can use either constructions in this case. The complex sentence "No sé qué hiciste" has an indirect interrogative clause in it which is like "¿Qué hiciste?", where you don't have a clue about what he did, so it does the job perfectly. In "Lo que hiciste el otro día..." is different, because an interrogative clause makes no sense, and you can't say "el que" or "la que" if you don't know the precise thing he did.

And if you want it a little bit more complicated.... "qué fue lo que te hice??" (yo no sé pero tú sí sabes) - veroz, Jan 2, 2011

I get it! (I think). If the person asking the question doesn't know what specifically they did wrong, lo que can't be used. The 'no sé' is what determines that it should be 'qué'. - Anna, Jan 2, 2011

Answer 2

"lo que" referres to an specific situation or thing.... "mira lo que me compré!" (i´ve bought a new t-shirt and I´m showing it to you)... "lo que me hiciste el otro día estuvo mal" (a few days ago, there was an specific situation) / "que" is used when you don´t know the fact or the thing you´re talking about... "qué te compraste?" (my sister get home with lot´s of shopping bags)... "qué hiciste?" (it has a bit of irony, maybe you are looking something broken by your son, and you are wandering how he did all that mess)

"lo" could be replaced with "aquello" or "eso".... "that" in english, i think - veroz, Jan 2, 2011

Answer 3

In this case it would be more like Veroz's example: "lo que me hiciste el otro día estuvo mal"

My context: I don't know what I did (to upset you). So then, wouldn't that mean it's referring to a specific situation or thing that I did wrong?

maybe, but he say that he doesn´t know what... so he use "que"... and maybe she will answer "lo que me molestó fue que me dejaras sola" or something like that - veroz, Jan 2, 2011

Answer 4

Hi Anna, first, you need to say que not qué in order to say that.

In my opinion :

to say what it's more likely to use lo que

and to say that you use only que

You can also have a look at this, it's already asked.

lo que vs. que

Thank you. I have studied que vs. lo que and knew there would already be a general link on ths site. However, now and then I get stuck and find it helps me personally learn to ask a specific question. - Anna, Jan 2, 2011