Breakdown of El collar está dañado. Se lo devuelvo a la tienda.
la tienda
the store
estar
to be (location/state)
a
to
lo
it / him (direct object)
Questions & Answers about El collar está dañado. Se lo devuelvo a la tienda.
Why do we use se in Se lo devuelvo?
We are saying "I am returning it (the necklace) to it (the store)." The pronoun for the object being returned is lo, and the pronoun for the recipient (the store) is normally le. But Spanish has a strict rule: you can never say le lo. Whenever le or les comes right before lo, la, los, or las, it changes to se. So, le lo devuelvo becomes se lo devuelvo.
If se already means "to the store", why do we add a la tienda at the end?
What does the lo in Se lo devuelvo stand for?
lo translates to "it" here. It is the direct object pronoun taking the place of el collar (the necklace). Since collar is a masculine noun, we must use lo. If you were returning a feminine object like a shirt (la camisa), you would say se la devuelvo instead.