Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Si la empresa la acepta, firmará un contrato de seis meses. - If the company accepts her, she will sign a six‑month contract.

la empresa – la is the definite article (the) that agrees in gender and number with empresa (a feminine singular noun).
la acepta – la is a direct object pronoun. It stands for a feminine singular person or thing already known from context (for example, her, you formal, or the application/offer if that noun is feminine).

So the structure is literally: If the company her/it accepts, … → If the company accepts her/it, …

Why is empresa feminine? It’s a company, not a “female” thing.

In Spanish, grammatical gender is mostly arbitrary and doesn’t directly relate to biological sex or “maleness/femaleness” of an object.

empresa ends in -a and is conventionally a feminine noun.
Therefore you must use feminine agreement: la empresa, esta empresa, una empresa grande, etc.

You simply have to memorize the gender of each noun as part of its vocabulary entry.

Why is the object pronoun la placed before acepta instead of after, like in English?

In Spanish, unstressed object pronouns normally go before a conjugated verb:

la acepta = accepts her/it

They can go after only in specific cases:

Attached to an infinitive: va a aceptarla (is going to accept her/it)
Attached to a gerund: está aceptándola (is accepting her/it)
Attached to an affirmative command: acéptala (accept her/it)

With a simple present indicative verb like acepta, the pronoun must go before: la acepta, not acepta la.

Could la acepta mean “accepts the company” (accepts it, the company)?

No, not in this sentence. Here’s why:

la empresa is the subject: the one doing the action (the company).
la before acepta is the direct object: the person or thing being accepted.

So syntactically:
la empresa (subject) → la (object) → acepta (verb)
= the company accepts her/it/you (formal).

If you wanted accepts the company, you’d say acepta a la empresa, with empresa following the verb (and often with a, since it’s a specific entity).

Why is it acepta and not acepte after si? I thought si “if” often needed the subjunctive.

Spanish uses different patterns with si:

Real or likely condition (what we have here):
- Si
  - present indicative → main clause with future (or present).
- Si la empresa la acepta, firmará un contrato…
  If the company accepts her, she will sign a contract…
Unreal or very unlikely present/future condition:
- Si
  - past subjunctive → main clause with conditional.
- Si la empresa la aceptara, firmaría un contrato…
  If the company accepted her, she would sign a contract…

So because this is presented as a real, possible situation, Spanish correctly uses acepta (indicative), not acepte (subjunctive).

Why does Spanish use the future firmará instead of the present, when English says “she will sign” or sometimes “she signs”?

In Spanish, for this kind of conditional sentence:

The si-clause uses present indicative: Si la empresa la acepta…
The result clause normally uses future simple: …firmará un contrato…

You can say …firma un contrato…, but …firmará un contrato… is the most natural, standard way to express “will sign” here in Spain. It clearly marks the action as a future result of the condition being fulfilled.

Could I say va a firmar un contrato de seis meses instead of firmará un contrato de seis meses?

Yes, you can:

firmará un contrato – simple future; slightly more neutral/formal.
va a firmar un contrato – periphrastic future (going to); often a bit more colloquial or used for near, fairly certain futures.

In this context both are correct in Spain. The choice is mostly about style and nuance; the meaning here is practically the same.

Why is it un contrato de seis meses and not un contrato por seis meses?

With contracts and fixed periods, Spanish normally uses de to express duration as a characteristic of the thing:

un contrato de seis meses = a six‑month contract (a contract of six months’ duration)

por is more about cause, motive, exchange, or movement through time/space. You can sometimes hear por seis meses for “for six months” as a time expression, but as a noun phrase describing the nature of the contract, de seis meses is the standard choice.

Why is there a comma after acepta?

In Spanish, when a sentence begins with an introductory or subordinate clause (like the si clause), it is standard to place a comma before the main clause:

Si la empresa la acepta, firmará un contrato de seis meses.

If you reverse the order, you normally don’t use a comma:

Firmará un contrato de seis meses si la empresa la acepta.

What’s the difference between firmará (future) and firmaría (conditional) in this sentence?

Changing the verb changes the type of condition:

Si la empresa la acepta, firmará un contrato…
Real/likely: If the company accepts her, she will sign a contract… (expected result)
Si la empresa la aceptara / aceptase, firmaría un contrato…
Hypothetical/unlikely: If the company accepted her, she would sign a contract… (but we don’t really expect it)

So firmará presents it as a realistic future outcome; firmaría would make it sound more hypothetical.