¿Qué pasó con lo de entonar la balada?

It is a very common way to ask what happened with ... ?, what became of ... ?, or what about ... ? in reference to something that had been mentioned, planned, or expected.

So ¿Qué pasó con lo de entonar la balada? is asking about the status or outcome of that idea/plan/topic.

Pasó is the pretérito indefinido form of pasar for él/ella/usted. In expressions like ¿Qué pasó?, Spanish uses this form impersonally, almost like English What happened?

• ¿Qué pasa? = What’s happening? / What’s going on?
• ¿Qué pasó? = What happened?
• ¿Qué ha pasado? = What has happened?

In Spain, both ¿Qué pasó? and ¿Qué ha pasado? are possible, but ¿Qué pasó? is very common in conversational Spanish.

Lo de is a very common Spanish structure used to refer to:

• a matter
• an issue
• a situation
• that thing about something

So lo de entonar la balada means something like:

• that thing about singing the ballad
• the matter of singing the ballad
• the idea/plan of singing the ballad

It is deliberately a bit vague, which is exactly why native speakers use it so much.

Not very naturally.

A word-for-word breakdown would be something like the thing of or that of, but that usually sounds odd in English. In real translation, lo de is normally rendered more freely, depending on context:

• lo de ayer = what happened yesterday / that thing from yesterday
• lo de Juan = the thing with Juan / Juan’s situation
• lo de entonar la balada = that whole thing about singing the ballad

So it is better to learn lo de as an idiomatic chunk rather than trying to translate each word separately.

Because lo in lo de is not a masculine article.

This lo is a neuter article, used to refer to something abstract, unspecified, or general. It often points to an idea, situation, or topic rather than a concrete noun.

So in lo de entonar la balada, lo does not agree with balada. It introduces the whole idea or issue.

Compare:

• la balada = the ballad
• lo de la balada = the thing about the ballad

Both relate to singing, but they are not exactly the same.

• cantar = to sing
• entonar = to intone, to start singing, or to sing in tune / in a certain tone

In many contexts, entonar una canción sounds a bit more formal, literary, or expressive than cantar una canción. It can suggest giving voice to it in a musical way, not just the basic act of singing.

So:

• cantar la balada = straightforward, neutral
• entonar la balada = slightly more stylized or expressive

A learner should know that cantar is more common in everyday speech, while entonar can sound a little more marked.

Spanish often uses the definite article where English might not.

Here, la balada probably refers to a specific ballad already known in the conversation. That is why the article sounds natural.

So the sentence implies something like:

• that ballad we were talking about
• the ballad in question

Without the article, entonar balada would not sound natural here.

Yes, but in this kind of sentence it is not an ordinary person or thing.

Spanish often leaves subjects unstated, and in ¿Qué pasó? the verb works almost impersonally. The focus is on what happened, not on who did it.

You do not need to imagine a hidden él or ella here. It is just the standard way Spanish asks about an event or development.

Yes, it is natural, especially in conversation.

The most colloquial part is lo de, which is extremely common in spoken Spanish in Spain. It helps speakers refer back to something already mentioned without naming it in a precise way.

The whole sentence sounds like something someone would say when asking:

• what became of that plan
• whether it ended up happening
• why it did not happen

So it is conversational and natural, not textbook-stiff.

Yes, but the original order is the most natural.

For example, you could hear:

• ¿Qué pasó con eso de entonar la balada?
• ¿Qué pasó con la idea de entonar la balada?

These versions are a bit more explicit.

The original ¿Qué pasó con lo de entonar la balada? is very idiomatic because lo de neatly packages the whole topic into one familiar expression.

Con is part of the fixed expression pasar con when talking about what happened to some matter or situation.

So:

• ¿Qué pasó con el proyecto? = What happened with the project?
• ¿Qué pasó con Ana? = What happened with Ana?
• ¿Qué pasó con lo de entonar la balada? = What happened with that thing about singing the ballad?

English does not always use with in exactly the same way, but in Spanish ¿Qué pasó con ... ? is very standard.

They have accents for different reasons.

• qué has an accent because it is an interrogative word in a direct question.
• pasó has an accent because the stress falls on the last syllable, and Spanish spelling rules require a written accent there.

So:

• qué = what?
• que = that, which, etc.

And:

• paso = step or I pass
• pasó = he/she/it happened, you happened in formal usted form, depending on context

The accent marks are important because they distinguish different words and meanings.

¿Qué fue de ... ? also means something like what became of ... ?, but it can sound a bit more literary or old-fashioned depending on context.

• ¿Qué pasó con ... ? = more everyday and direct
• ¿Qué fue de ... ? = more like whatever happened to ... ?

In modern spoken Spanish in Spain, ¿Qué pasó con ... ? is usually the more common choice.