Breakdown of El plato está sucio, lo estoy lavando.
estar
to be (location/state)
sucio
dirty
el plato
the dish / the plate
lavar
to wash
Questions & Answers about El plato está sucio, lo estoy lavando.
Can I attach lo to the end of lavando instead of putting it before estoy?
Yes! When you have a conjugated verb followed by a gerund (an -ing word like lavando), you have two choices for the object pronoun. You can put it before the conjugated verb (lo estoy lavando) or attach it directly to the end of the gerund (estoy lavándolo). Both are perfectly correct and mean the exact same thing.
If I choose to say estoy lavándolo, do I need to add an accent mark?
Why does the sentence use está for is dirty instead of es?
You use estar (here conjugated as está) to talk about physical conditions or temporary states. A plate is not permanently dirty by nature; it is just in a dirty state right now. If you used es, it would sound like being dirty is an unchanging characteristic of this specific plate!
What exactly does lo refer to here?