Dime lo que pasó.

Question

¿Cuál es la diferencia entre estas oraciones?

Dime qué pasó.

Dime lo que pasó.

Answer 1

OK. Super. "Muches grasseous," as the gringos say.

Answer 2

Thank you, Lazarus.

If you were doing a strict (fairly literal, but not to the point of being awkward) translation, would you render anything different for these two sentences when they both appear in the same conversation from the same speaker?

No, in Spanish they sound the same, but it is often easier for English speakers to remember that "lo" is almost like "the thing (that)", even though in practice the translation is "what", or else. Both sentences would be translated as "what happened", but then it is quite hard to show how they are different grammatically speaking.

Answer 3

Thank you, Lazarus.

If you were doing a strict (fairly literal, but not to the point of being awkward) translation, would you render anything different for these two sentences when they both appear in the same conversation from the same speaker'

Answer 4

They mean the same, but they achieve the same result with two different constructions. "Lo que paso" is almos literally "the thing that happened", and "qué pasó" is an interrogative equivalent to "what happened", so it should be intonated as if it was a question. The accents are used correctly.

Answer 5

Hi Rocco, no difference here, in meaning anyway.

Answer 6

In meaning there is no difference, in spanish there is something called "Elipsis" that in short terms means that you hide information that is implicity given by the context.

Dime lo que pasó.
Dime que pasó.

Both senteces implicity say that something have happened otherwise you wouldnt be asking that sort of questions.

"lo" referes to that "something" that happened but as long as you know that something happened there is no need to include it.

Answer 7

Thanks for being willing. I guess we'll wait until the experts roll out of bed. You know those big brains take lots of recharging at night!

Answer 8

Someone will probably answer you soon, I'm interested to know as well. I have an idea in mind but I don't want to say anything in case I'm horribly wrong. I wouldn't want to provide incorrect information for you, lol.

But something I think is odd is the use of qué at all without a question mark. I thought that wasn't permitted.

Looks like it should be Dime, ¿qué pasó?

But there might be some rules with imperatives that I don't remember, so forgive me.