Breakdown of Ho perso il passaporto. L'hai visto?
avere
to have
vedere
to see
perdere
to lose, to miss
lo
him/it (direct object)
Questions & Answers about Ho perso il passaporto. L'hai visto?
What does the L' stand for in L'hai visto?
The L' is the direct object pronoun lo (it), replacing the masculine singular il passaporto. When lo or la comes before a form of avere that starts with an 'h' (which is silent) and a vowel, the 'o' or 'a' is dropped and replaced with an apostrophe.
Why does visto end in -o here? Does it have to match the pronoun?
Yes! When you use the direct object pronouns lo, la, li, or le before a verb in the passato prossimo, the past participle must match the pronoun in gender and number. Since lo (hidden in L') is masculine singular, visto takes the masculine singular ending -o.
What if I had lost a feminine object, like la chiave (the key)? How would the second sentence change?
Why isn't it Hai visto lo?