Breakdown of La mujer que lo roba está en el banco.
en
in / on / at
estar
to be (location/state)
el banco
bank
la mujer
the woman
que
that / than
lo
it / him (direct object)
robar
to steal
Questions & Answers about La mujer que lo roba está en el banco.
The English translation uses "who", but the Spanish sentence uses que. Doesn't que mean "that"?
Yes, but que is the ultimate multi-tool pronoun in Spanish! It means "that," "which," and "who." Even though Spanish has a specific word for who (quien), you almost always use que when linking a person directly to an action they are doing, like in La mujer que lo roba (The woman who is stealing it).
Why is lo placed before roba instead of after it?
In Spanish, object pronouns like lo (it) almost always go directly before the conjugated verb they belong to. Even though this verb is tucked inside a que clause, the rule stays exactly the same: it has to be que lo roba (literally "who it steals"), not que roba lo.
The translation says "is stealing," but isn't roba just the simple present tense (steals)?
Yes! In English, we rely heavily on the "is doing" form (present continuous) for things happening right now. In Spanish, the simple present tense (roba) is very flexible and is often used to mean both "steals" and "is stealing." You could say que lo está robando, but the simpler que lo roba is completely natural and common.
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