Why use "lo" when writing Lo sé, te lo juro?
Hi there!
te lo digo, lo sé, te lo juro...
In english we leave the "it" out and so I'm wondering why use it in Spanish and how do you know which verbs to use it with and which not?
3 Answers
In english we leave the "it" out and so I'm wondering why use it in Spanish and how do you know which verbs to use it with and which not?
A big difference is the gender. If you know the gender, then use it:
Jurar la constitución -> Jurarla
Otherwise, if you don't have a specific noun or concept with a gender, the default one in Spanish is "lo", so "jurarlo" is the right thing to do.
English tends to omit implicit objects that in Spanish are compulsory. Get used to it.
The key thing I see from your question, is that you recognize an "it" could be there, but in English you don't need it, in order to know what's going on.
Well, in Spanish we need to put it there to make sense and agree with gender etc as Lazarus noted.
The way I learned it is that this "it" that can be left out in English is known as lo "sobreentendido" . An example is as follows: English - "That girl seems smart, but she really isn't [smart]." In Spanish: "Esa mujer parece lista, pero en realidad no lo es. Although there are not any "real" rules for this, the verbs that always need "lo" to express a complement are: ser, saber, preguntar, poder, estar, creer, parecer and decir. However, keep in mind that this can be used with other verbs, and there is no English equivalent.
