Using se instead of él
Hello I'm a beginner in Spanish. Can someone please explain when and why do we use some words instead of others..for example
'se' instead of 'él'...and 'lo' instead of esta/es
EX. (se lo va) means he is going, while (él esta va) also means the same right?
I'm a bit confused about the difference
thanks
2 Answers
"Lo" never replaces "he" or "she", but "it".
When you say "Lo hizo" it means "He did it" (or "she did it").
"Lo" it's the thing or action that was performed by he or she. In Spanish we don't use pronouns in a sentence, probably that's why you get confused and thought "lo" means "he" (él).
In Spanish, most of the verbs are irregulars, so the suffix (the ending in a word) defines "who" did the action: "hizo" couples only with "she" or "he" ("él" o "ella"). Take a look:
VERBO "HACER", PASADO (PAST TENSE)
Yo hice Tu hiciste Él / Ella hizo Nosotros hicimos Ustedes hicieron Ellos hicieron
I'll answer the rest of your questions later today.
"Se lo va" doesn't make a lot of sense. "Él va" and "Él se va" and "Él está viendo" (not "él esta va"), and any of these without the pronoun "Él," make sense, and much depends on context.
I can't think of any time when we would use "se" instead of "él" or "lo" instead of "está" or "es" -- these words have very different functions.
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