Pon un candado en la bicicleta para evitar que alguien se la lleve.

Put a padlock on the bicycle to keep someone from taking it.

Breakdown of Pon un candado en la bicicleta para evitar que alguien se la lleve.

• en: on
• que: that
• para: to
• evitar: to avoid
• la bicicleta: the bicycle
• poner: to put
• alguien: someone
• el candado: the padlock
• llevarse: to take away

Questions & Answers about Pon un candado en la bicicleta para evitar que alguien se la lleve.

In the sentence, why do we use the affirmative tú command pon (without an accent) instead of pongas or pones?

Pon is the irregular affirmative tú form of poner (“to put”). In Spanish, positive commands for tú often use the third-person singular of the present indicative for regular verbs, but poner is irregular and becomes pon. You use pon when you’re directly telling someone you address as tú to do something.

Why is the preposition en used in pon un candado en la bicicleta? Couldn’t we say sobre or a?

En is the most natural choice to express “on” or “onto” when placing something onto another object (“on the bike”).
• Sobre also means “on,” but sounds more formal or abstract (e.g., “el libro está sobre la mesa”).
• A would imply movement toward rather than placement on: “poner algo a la bicicleta” isn’t idiomatic.

What does candado mean?

A candado is a padlock—a small lock with a U-shaped bar used to secure items like bicycles, gates or lockers. It’s a masculine noun: el candado.

Why do we say para evitar que alguien se la lleve instead of just para evitar alguien se la lleve, or para evitar + infinitive?

When the subject of evitar (you) differs from the subject of the subordinate clause (someone), Spanish requires a que + subjunctive structure.
• Same subject → para evitar + infinitive: “para evitar problemas.”
• Different subjects → para + evitar + que + subjunctive: “para evitar que alguien se la lleve.”

Why is lleve in the subjunctive mood?

After que in purpose or prevention clauses (and with a different subject), you use the subjunctive to express something desired, possible or hypothetical. Here, evitar que alguien se la lleve means “to prevent someone from taking it,” which is hypothetical or unwanted, so llevarse becomes se la lleve.

What roles do the pronouns se and la play in se la lleve?

• Se is the reflexive pronoun for llevarse, indicating “to take away (for oneself).”
• La is the direct object pronoun referring to la bicicleta (feminine).
Together se la lleve literally means “(that) he/she takes it away.”

Why use llevarse (“to carry off”) instead of robar (“to steal”)?

Llevarse focuses on physically removing or carrying something away, without explicitly labeling it a crime. Robar means “to steal” and highlights the illegal act. Both are possible:
• para evitar que alguien se la lleve (to stop someone from carrying it off)
• para evitar que alguien te la robe (to stop someone from stealing it from you)

Why is it la bicicleta and not el bicicleta, and why does the pronoun la match it?

Bicicleta is a feminine noun in Spanish, so it takes the feminine article la. Any pronoun referring back to it must also be feminine: la. Hence, la bicicleta → se la lleve.