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Questions & Answers about Le expliqué los nuevos botones a Ana y se los mostré en la impresora.
Why do we say se los instead of le los in “se los mostré”?
In Spanish, when an indirect object pronoun (le / les) and a direct object pronoun (lo / la / los / las) appear together, le or les changes to se to avoid the awkward sequence le lo. So you never hear le los mostré; it becomes se los mostré.
What do the pronouns se and los refer to in the sentence?
- se replaces the indirect object “to Ana” (originally le).
- los replaces the direct object “the new buttons” (los nuevos botones).
Why is the indirect object repeated as both se and a Ana?
Spanish often uses both a clitic pronoun and a noun phrase for clarity or emphasis.
- se is needed in the clitic cluster (instead of le).
- a Ana clarifies exactly who se refers to.
You could omit a Ana, but including it makes the sentence clearer and more natural.
Why are the pronouns placed before mostré instead of after it?
With a single conjugated verb (here mostré), pronouns normally go immediately before the verb. If you had an infinitive or gerund, you could attach them after, but with only mostré, they precede it: se los mostré.
Why do expliqué and mostré have accents on the final é?
They are first-person singular in the preterite tense of -ar verbs. The ending -é carries an accent to show that the stress falls on that final syllable:
- explicar → expliqué
- mostrar → mostré
Couldn’t we use enseñé instead of mostré to mean “showed”?
Both can translate as “showed,” but there’s a subtle difference:
- mostrar focuses on physically displaying or pointing out something.
- enseñar often means “to teach” or “to show in order to instruct.”
Here, since it’s simply a visual demo of buttons, mostrar is more neutral.
Why is it en la impresora (“on the printer”) and not con la impresora or por la impresora?
- en indicates location (“on/at the printer’s display”).
- con would imply using the printer as an instrument (“with the printer”).
- por could mean “by means of,” but in this context you’re describing where you showed them (on its screen), so en is the natural choice.