Why is "los" needed here?

Question

'Conoce a los extranjeros de distintos países.'

This seems odd considering it would translate to "He knows the foreigners..." in English.

Answer 1

Here's a link to more info on the definite articles : definite articles

The upshot is that definite articles are used a great deal more in Spanish than in English. Generally speaking, the definite article is used any time a noun is used, with exceptions. (See link).

This means that litteral translations of Spanish into English always have a lot of extraneous "the's", and English to Spanish tends to leave them out. Just a fundamental difference in the two languages.

Well, still is not known what would be the English version, if there was one originally. If something read "Come and meet the foreigners that are going to be helping you this weekend" iS that is a "extraneous" "the" then? :-D - chileno, Jan 13, 2014

No. English uses definite articles, just not to the extent that Spanish does. Thing like "cars are nice" would be "los carros son buenos". - Noetol, Jan 13, 2014

In this case, the meaning in the proper context would exactly the same in both languages, please refer to my reply. - chileno, Jan 14, 2014

Yes, you are right. In that context, the literal translation would be the same in both languages. - Noetol, Jan 14, 2014

Answer 2

It all depends of context....

In this case, without knowing anymore context, I would think that "los" is being used to emphasize the different foreigners from each of the participating countries.

Now, please take into account that I know nothing about my grammar, rather I forgot everything about it once I was out of High School.

I am with you on this " los "is needed here. - pacofinkler, Jan 13, 2014

Answer 3

The definite article is in plural form (el = singular; los = plural) because the noun is in plural form.

If the sentance was about just one foreigner or stranger, it would say "el extranjero". Here it seems to be about at least two, so it's "los extranjeros".

English only has one definite article ("the") and unlike Spanish it has no gender and no plural form. So yes, in English we would both "the foreigner" and "the foreigners".

I know the rules about el, la, los, las, etc. I just want to know why "los" is needed. If you were to translate directly, you would get "He knows the foreigners from different countries." - Ethan25, Jan 13, 2014

Ethan25: You might need to add more sentences if you need a better explanation. - Notedstrangeperson, Jan 13, 2014

Answer 4

yes, it does seem odd, in either language,,,to know THE foreigners of different countries,,,i guess if you were in a hostel and there were some locals, and then some foreigners of different countries to distinguish from the locals, but then why not just say "a los extranjeros",,,de distintos paises is redundant,,,anyway, it's a bad grammar drill probably...in English we would say "he knows some foreigners" and probably in Spanish too, "conoce a unos extranjeros" would be used and makes more sense,,,