No entiendo lo de la puntuación del jurado.

Both are possible, but entender is more common in everyday spoken Spanish for to understand.

• No entiendo... = the most natural everyday choice
• No comprendo... = also correct, but can sound a bit more formal, emphatic, or literary depending on context

So in normal conversation, a Spanish speaker from Spain would very often say No entiendo....

Lo de is a very common Spanish structure used to refer vaguely to that thing about..., the matter of..., or what’s going on with... something.

So:

• lo de la puntuación = the thing about the scoring
• No entiendo lo de la puntuación del jurado = I don’t understand the thing about the jury’s scoring

It often appears when the speaker does not want to name the issue in a very precise or technical way.

Compare:

• No entiendo la puntuación del jurado = I don’t understand the jury’s score/scoring
• No entiendo lo de la puntuación del jurado = I don’t understand that whole scoring thing with the jury

The version with lo de sounds a bit more conversational and slightly less direct.

Because de la puntuación by itself cannot work as the object of entiendo here.

You need something to stand for the thing / the matter. That is what lo is doing in the expression lo de.

• Entiendo la puntuación = correct
• Entiendo lo de la puntuación = correct
• Entiendo de la puntuación = not correct in this meaning

So lo de acts like a fixed expression meaning the thing about.

Not exactly in the usual sense of him/it.

Here, lo is the neuter article/pronoun, often used to refer to an idea, situation, or abstract matter rather than a specific masculine noun.

That is why lo de can refer to:

• lo de ayer = the thing about yesterday / what happened yesterday
• lo del examen = the thing about the exam
• lo de la puntuación del jurado = the thing about the jury’s scoring

This lo does not mean a specific it like English does. It points to an abstract topic.

Del is simply the contraction of de + el.

• de + el = del

So:

• la puntuación del jurado = the scoring of the jury / the jury’s scoring

You use del because jurado is a masculine singular noun and it takes el:

• el jurado
• la puntuación del jurado

Yes, but in Spanish jurado is often treated as a singular collective noun, just like jury can be in English.

• el jurado = the jury
• even though it consists of multiple people, the noun itself is singular

So:

• la puntuación del jurado = the jury’s score/scoring

If you wanted to talk about the individual members, you would say something like:

• los miembros del jurado = the members of the jury

Puntuación usually means score, scoring, or points awarded, depending on context.

In this sentence, it most likely refers to the points or scoring given by the jury, for example in a contest, TV show, music competition, or sports event.

Be careful: puntuación can also mean punctuation in grammar contexts.

So the word has two common meanings:

• punctuation marks in writing
• score/scoring in competitions

Here, because of del jurado, it clearly means score/scoring.

Yes, absolutely.

That version is more direct and straightforward:

• No entiendo la puntuación del jurado = I don’t understand the jury’s scoring

The original sentence with lo de sounds more conversational and slightly broader, as if the speaker means I don’t get this whole business about the jury’s scoring.

So both are correct, but the nuance is slightly different.

Because there is no direct object referring to a specific person.

The personal a is used before specific human direct objects, for example:

• Veo a María
• Entiendo al profesor sometimes in special contexts, though less common with entender

But here the object is not a person. It is:

• lo de la puntuación del jurado

That is an idea/topic, so no personal a is needed.

No, it is very natural Spanish word order.

The structure is:

• No = negation
• entiendo = I understand
• lo de la puntuación del jurado = the thing about the jury’s scoring

So literally:

• I don’t understand the thing about the jury’s scoring

This is a very normal pattern in spoken Spanish:

• No entiendo lo de...
• No sé lo de...
• Explícame lo de...

Not exactly.

La puntuación del jurado refers more naturally to the score/scoring given by the jury or the jury’s scoring system/result.

If you want to say I don’t understand what score the jury gave, Spanish would more likely say something like:

• No entiendo qué puntuación dio el jurado
• No entiendo la puntuación que dio el jurado

So the original sentence is more about the scoring matter/topic, not specifically asking which number they gave.

Yes, very common. It is especially frequent in everyday spoken Spanish in Spain.

You will hear it in many casual sentences, for example:

• ¿Qué pasa con lo de mañana? = What’s happening with the thing about tomorrow?
• No me gustó lo de anoche = I didn’t like what happened last night
• Explícame lo del jurado = Explain the jury thing to me

It is a very useful conversational structure, and learners hear it a lot in real Spanish.

A natural pronunciation would be roughly:

No entiendo lo de la puntuación del jurado

Helpful pronunciation notes:

• entiendo: the ie is pronounced like a diphthong, roughly en-TYEN-do
• lo de often flows together smoothly
• puntuación has the stress on the final syllable -ción
• in most of Spain, c before i/o? Wait, not here. In puntuación, the ci sound in -ción is pronounced with the th sound of thin in central/northern Spain: roughly pun-too-a-THYON
• jurado: the j is a strong throaty sound, not like English j

A broad approximation for Spain pronunciation: no en-TYEN-do lo de la pun-too-a-THYON del khoo-RA-do

Not very naturally.

A word-for-word version would be something like:

• the thing about the jury’s scoring

That helps you understand the grammar, but in natural English you would usually say something like:

• I don’t understand the jury’s scoring
• I don’t get the scoring from the jury
• I don’t understand that whole jury scoring thing

So lo de often does not have one neat English equivalent. You usually translate it by sounding natural rather than matching each word exactly.