La computadora facilita comprender la lección.

The computer makes it easy to understand the lesson.

Breakdown of La computadora facilita comprender la lección.

• comprender: to understand
• la lección: the lesson
• la computadora: the computer
• facilitar: to facilitate

Questions & Answers about La computadora facilita comprender la lección.

What does facilita mean here, and why can’t we just use hace?

Facilita comes from the verb facilitar, which in English is “to make easy” or “to facilitate.” You could use hace (“makes”) in a paraphrase, but you need to add more words to keep the same meaning. For example:

• La computadora hace más fácil comprender la lección.
  Here, hace
  • más fácil literally equals facilita. Using facilita is just more concise.

Why is comprender in the infinitive form after facilita?

In Spanish, after verbs like facilitar, permitir, or impedir, you often use an infinitive to express “the action” that is being affected. Grammatically, facilita takes a direct object, and that object can be an infinitive phrase:

• facilita + infinitive
  This is the equivalent of English “facilitates doing something.”

Why isn’t there a preposition or que before comprender?

Because facilitar here directly governs the infinitive. You only need que plus a subjunctive if you change the structure:

• La computadora facilita comprender la lección.
• vs.
• La computadora facilita que comprendas la lección. (uses que
  • subjunctive)

Could I say La computadora facilita que entiendo la lección?

No. If you use que, you must switch to subjunctive, because there’s a change in subject or an element of “influence”:

• Correct: La computadora facilita que comprendas la lección.
• Incorrect: La computadora facilita que entiendo la lección. (should be comprendas)

Why is it la computadora and not el computadora or un computadora?

• Computadora ends in -a and is feminine, so it takes la.
• In Latin America, computadora is the standard word. In Spain, you might hear ordenador (masculine).
• We use la (the definite article) because we’re talking about the computer in general—a specific concept rather than just “any computer.”

Why do we say la lección instead of just lección?

Spanish often requires the definite article before abstract or general nouns:

• Comprender la lección (to understand the lesson)
• Estudio el español (I study Spanish)
  Dropping la would sound incomplete.

Can I change the word order, like Facilita la computadora comprender la lección?

No. Standard Spanish word order is Subject-Verb-Object. Here:

• Subject: La computadora
• Verb: facilita
• Object (infinitive phrase): comprender la lección
  Swapping them would confuse the listener about who’s doing the action.

Is there another way to express the same idea with a noun?

Yes. You could use the noun facilidad (“ease”):

• La computadora da facilidad para comprender la lección.
  This literally means “The computer gives ease for understanding the lesson,” but it’s more wordy than the original.