Learn Spanish (Latin America): Ese intento falla. Sin embargo, la realidad lo sorprende. - That attempt fails. However, reality surprises him.

Yes, you can! Sin embargo (however) can start a new sentence, or it can connect two parts of a single sentence. If you combine them, it would often look like this: Ese intento falla, sin embargo, la realidad lo sorprende. (Sometimes a semicolon is used before it, too).

Why is it ese intento (that attempt) instead of eso intento?

Ese is the masculine singular form of 'that' used when it comes right before a noun (like intento). You only use eso when 'that' is an unspecified idea or unknown object, not attached to a noun. Since intento is a specific masculine noun, we must use ese.

English just says 'reality,' so why does Spanish use la realidad with the 'the' (la)?

In Spanish, you generally need to use a definite article (el, la, los, las) when talking about abstract concepts or things in a general sense. While English drops 'the' for general 'reality,' Spanish requires the la.

What does the lo in lo sorprende do, and why is it placed there?