I'm Confused.

Question

I was talking to my friend, who is a native. During our conversation I said "Eso es que traductor dijo." He told me I was wrong. He said, what I should have said was ",Eso fue lo que dijo el traductor." I used the search function of this site and I am currently gaining an understanding of the difference between "lo que" and "que." I even understand why he used "fue," kind of(However, I wouldn't mind someone clarifying it for me).I am, however, still confused why "dijo" came before "el traductor."

When answering ,please keep in mind, I'm still a beginner.

Answer 1

Eso fue lo que dijo el traductor.

This is correct. You could place dijo after traductor but it would sound a little unnatural and elementary, so just consider this Spanish sentence structure and not English structure.

Fue is used because the whole situation happened in the past and the tense corresponds with the usage of dijo.

Thanks, for answering both. - real_Spanish, Jun 5, 2013

Answer 2

L: He said that really?

H. That he said indeed--that is exactly what he said.

L. He did that?

H: That he did.

I'm not sure what your saying. lol - real_Spanish, Jun 5, 2013

I don't know why anyone would vote for this answer... - Sheily, Jun 5, 2013

Answer 3

Eso fue lo que dijo el traductor.
Eso fue lo que el traductor dijo.
Both are the same but forcing myself to make a difference between both sentences I could say the word after que has a little more enphazise like paying more attention to the translated text in the first sentence and to the translator in the second one.

thanks again :) - real_Spanish, Jun 5, 2013

Thanks. I'm not sure if it was just a mistake or if your learning English but It's "Both are" not "Are both." - real_Spanish, Jun 5, 2013

Yes I'm learning English. Thanks :-) - Anormal, Jun 5, 2013

Answer 4

Regarding the word order in that sentence, I know exactly what you're going through and I often struggle with the same thing. My gut feeling is that the Spanish language generally favours placing the verb between the subject and the object in both directions: not only subject - verb - object (the normal English word order) but also object - verb - subject (and in sentences with subordinate clauses like yours the object naturally comes first, thereby pushing the subject to the end of the sentence so that the verb stays between them). Of course this doesn't apply to direct and indirect object pronouns, they are governed by other rules.

I could be wrong about this, so dear native speakers please correct me if I'm misleading real_Spanish.

Answer 5

In this context, if you think of translating 'that which' instead of 'what', you will find it easier understand 'lo que'. This is 'that which' the translator says/said.

It's not exactly natural in English but, for me at least, thinking that way took away any difficultly out of using and understanding the construction...