Help with translating a Spanish cartoon
I'm using an old textbook as a primer, and have made my way to the imperfect subjunctive used to make suggestions/polite requests, and I'm having trouble trying to understand a simple cartoon. The idea is that a guy wants to marry a princess, so the king is telling him he has to cross a river to bring him treasure: 'Si usted quiere casarse con la princesa, sólo tiene que traerme el tesoro del otro lado del río"
The next frame shows the man has successfully crossed the river to get the treasure, but the river was full of alligators and he barely survived. The caption reads "pudiera habérmelo dicho, su majestad". I read this to mean " You could have told/said (it) to me, your majesty". I'm having trouble understanding the 'lo' in this sentence....would it refer to the fact that there were alligators in the river, which he didn't know about prior to crossing it? Or am I missing the meaning entirely? Thanks!
3 Answers
You've got it 100% I would say.
One of the many uses of "lo" is to refer to a whole concept or to something lengthy that was said previously without having to say it over again.
In this case, in English we would probably say: You could have told me that the river was full of alligators, your majesty. OR: You could have told me about this.
in Spanish lo="that the river was full of alligators" because it is obvious that this is the fact that he is talking about. So lo=about this in this case.
A few other examples:
No lo sé = I don't know "whatever it is that you just asked me about" In English we would often just say I don't know.
¿Eres el padre de ella? Are you her father?
Sí, lo soy.
Yes I am.
Mujeres y hombres no pueden ser solo amigos.
Women y men can't just be friends.
Sí, pueden hacerlo.
Yes they can.
Here's a great video that delves into many of the other uses of LO. The page also shows full transcript of the video.
Gracias a todo! Esta pagina es la mejor 
Yes, k...... Is right. Lo Is the whole fact there are alligators.........
