Learn Spanish (Latin America): Ella va a comprar el perfume. Se lo recomiendo. - She is going to buy the perfume. I recommend it to her.

In Spanish, se is the indirect object pronoun meaning 'to her' (referring to Ella). Normally this would be le, but whenever le or les comes right before lo, la, los, or las, it changes to se. This happens because le lo is difficult to pronounce. So, instead of saying le lo recomiendo, we say se lo recomiendo.

What exactly do se and lo stand for here?

se stands for 'to her', referring back to Ella from the first sentence. lo stands for 'it', referring to the masculine noun el perfume. Put together before the verb, se lo means 'it to her'.

Why are se and lo placed before the verb recomiendo?

Object pronouns are placed immediately before the conjugated verb. Since recomiendo is a conjugated verb meaning 'I recommend', the pronouns must go right in front of it. Also, notice the order: the indirect object (se) always comes before the direct object (lo).

Why is there an a in va a comprar?