Explanation about lo la las los

Question

Can anyone explane me (in few short senteces) about the functionality of this m.singular:LO ; f.singular LA ; M.plural LOS ;F plural LAS; Construction:Subjecto+verbo+C.D. : Titia compra una blusa. ( Que compra ? > Una blusa > F.singular > La) ->Titia la compra.

And this one Construction:verbo+C.D+ 1 palabra : (Imperativo) Cuenta un cuento. (Que cuenta ?> Un cuento > M.singular > Lo) ->CuéntaLO

I just don't get the idea, why would we use them , and where i can find more info about that?

Thanks

Answer 1

They are used in Spanish to refer to the object of the sentence, or the receiver of the action in the sentence. It is like the English "it" when referring to the direct object of a sentence.

Like in your example, Titia compra una blusa. She is buying a shirt. She is buying "it." But "it" must be feminine and singular, since "una blusa" is feminine and singular.

Other examples:

• I am using the computer. Uso el ordenador. =>Lo uso. (I am using it).
• She eats seafood. Come los mariscos.=>Los come. (She eats them).
• We are buying lamps. Compramos unas lámparas. => Las compramos (We are buying them).

In Spanish, these direct object pronouns are often used when an object has already been referred to previously.

For example:

• We bought some very expensive shoes. We brought them home. Then we removed them from their boxes.
• Compramos unos zapatos muy caros. Los llevamos a casa. Después los quitamos de las cajas.

As you can see, in both English and Spanish, we eliminated the word "shoes" in the second and third sentences because we know what "them" or "los" was referring to, and we wanted to avoid repetition. We don´t want to say "We bought some very expensive shoes. We brought the shoes home. Then we removed the shoes from the boxes." It is a little too repetitive.

So you see how the "it" in each sentence is changed to adapt to gender and number of the object it is referring to?

Check out this page on Spanish grammar and scroll down to the PRONOUNS section for more info.

Answer 2

It's a way of referring to the object of the sentence."María compra la camisa" (the stress it's in María); "María la compra" (here the stress it's in the "camisa"). You could use the passive voice, in the present tense."la camisa está siendo comprada por María" but, as you can see, it's way longer, and almost we don't use it.

The others, as you say, are imperatives. As the other case, it's a shorter form. In the case "María compra la camisa" you can give the order as "María, compra tú la camisa", or "María, cómprala"

In both cases, the object (here, la camisa) must have been referred to before.