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El niño rompe el juguete y el padre lo arregla.

El niño rompe el juguete y el padre lo arregla.
The boy breaks the toy and the father fixes it.
From Lesson 59:Direct object pronouns (lo, la, los, las)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El niño rompe el juguete y el padre lo arregla.

What does lo mean here, and why didn't we use la?
lo means 'it' in this sentence. We use lo because it replaces el juguete (the toy), which is a masculine, singular noun. If the father were fixing a feminine object, like la muñeca (the doll), we would use la instead.
Why is lo placed before arregla?
In Spanish, direct object pronouns (short words like 'it', 'him', or 'her' that receive the action) usually go right before the conjugated verb. While in English we put it after the verb ('fixes it'), Spanish puts it before: lo arregla.
Both rompe and arregla are actions done by a 'he' in this sentence. Why do they end in different letters?
They belong to different verb families. rompe comes from romper (an -ER verb), so its 'he/she/it' form ends in -e. arregla comes from arreglar (an -AR verb), so its 'he/she/it' form ends in -a.
Could we drop el padre and just say y lo arregla?
You could, but it would change the meaning. Because Spanish often drops subjects when they are understood, saying el niño rompe el juguete y lo arregla would imply that the boy broke the toy and then the boy fixed it himself. We need to state el padre to show that someone else stepped in to fix it.

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