Las Manos - los or las necesito?

Question

So, my wife, who is fluent in Spanish, asked me if she could borrow my hands in the kitchen. I said "No, I've become attached to them." Then she said, "Pero los necesito". I'm thinking it should be "las necesito", but she's pretty sure that she's right.

Well? Do I get to do a little victory dance or hang my head in shame for doubting her?

Careful. You can get fined for doing victory dances nowadays. Do you like sleeping on the couch? - 0074b507, Apr 23, 2011

LOL! Yeah, the victory dance would definitely be only in my head. :) - rfquinn, Apr 24, 2011

Answer 1

Las necesito. No doubt. Either your wife is not as fluent as you thought, or Spanish has changed so much, that natives are useless.

Thanks, but that's a pretty rude thing to say. My wife's first language is Spanish, so yes, I would say she's fluent. How many English-only speakers make grammatical mistakes every day, not thinking twice about it? - rfquinn, Apr 24, 2011

Don't get mad at this guy, he feeds off of it. Just laugh and tell him how funny he is. - Beatrice-Codder, Apr 24, 2011

Answer 2

No worries- there are a lot of native speakers that get these things mixed up. For example:

El problema

It is an irregular and often is only used correctly by speakers that speak Spanish as a second language

Natives getting the gneder of "problema" wrong? Really? Never met anyone! - lazarus1907, Apr 23, 2011

Not even I get that one wrong. :) - ian-hill, Apr 23, 2011

I have been working with a bunch of guys from El Salvador. I have heard a few of them get gender incorrect only to have our resident Cuban correct them. It doesn't help that some can't read. - Beatrice-Codder, Apr 23, 2011

Answer 3

When I started learning, this was one of the things that would break up my fluency the most: las manos, el tequila, el tema, ect.