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Discover How to Use 'Lo que' in Spanish – Weekly Lesson & Quiz
Alejandro Nunez
June 07, 2024
Hola Estudiantes,
Feliz viernes, 7 de julio.
I hope you are having a fantastic week. Here is your weekly newsletter, ‘Mastering Spanish Together, ’ with everything you need to keep improving your Spanish.
Cita o Frase de la Semana - Quote or Saying of the Week:
"El que quiere, puede." - Spanish Proverb
"Where there's a will, there's a way."
Clase de la Semana - Lesson of the Week
How The Use of 'Lo que' in Spanish - Part 1
This expression is one of the most used expressions in Spanish. It is very useful for referring to something that is not explicitly mentioned but is understood from the context.
To understand it better, let’s talk about grammar and some key points to remember:
‘Lo que’ is a relative pronoun that connects two relative clauses.
A relative clause is a sentence that has a subject and a verb, but it can't stand alone as a complete sentence.
In English, ‘Lo que’ can be translated to ‘What’ or ‘That.’
When ‘Lo que’ is translated to ‘What’
It is better to think as ‘Lo que’ when you use ‘what’ in the middle of a sentence. Let’s review a few examples:
“That is what I’m saying” in Spanish is “Eso es lo que estoy diciendo”
“This is what I do” in Spanish is “Esto es lo que hago”
“I want to have what you’re having” in Spanish is “Quiero comer lo que tú estás comiendo”
“I understand more than I can speak” in Spanish is “Entiendo más de lo que hablo”
In the examples below, 'lo que' is used to connect two sentences by placing it in the middle of them. Let’s review when ‘lo que’ is used at the beginning of the sentence. Let’s study some examples:
“What I need is a nap” in Spanish is “Lo que necesito es una siesta”
“What I want is a drink” in Spanish is “Lo que necesito es un trago"
“What you can do is cook for the week” in Spanish is “Lo que puedes hacer es cocinar para toda la semana”
When ‘Lo que’ is translated to ‘That’
In the last example ‘lo que’ is used at the beginning of the sentence when you use expressions like “what I want is…”- “Lo que quiero es…” but what happens to that sentence if you start with the word ‘All’ - ‘Todo,’ the sentence in English becomes “All that I want is…” that in Spanish is “Todo lo que quiero es…” in this scenario, ‘lo que’ is translated to ‘that’
Let’s review a few examples:
“All that I want is to learn Spanish” in Spanish is “Todo lo que quiero es aprender Español”
“All that I need is a vacation” in Spanish is “Todo lo que necesito son vacaciones”
“All that we can do is wait” in Spanish is “Todo lo que podemos hacer es esperar”
There are some other cases where we use "lo que," but we'll cover those in part 2 next week!
Quiz de la Semana - Quiz of the Week
Test your knowledge of "lo que"! Start the quiz by following the button below:
Titulares en Español - Headlines in Spanish
Estados Unidos
Deportes
Casa Blanca
Gracias por leer.
Thank you for reading our weekly newsletter, ‘Mastering Spanish Together’ - My goal is to provide you with practical and engaging content every week to enhance your Spanish learning journey. We aim to offer you actionable insights and tools to help you become more fluent and confident in using Spanish in everyday life.
Feel free to reply to this email with any questions or comments.
Muchas gracias.
Un abrazo,
Alejandro Nuñez
Director, New Way Spanish
