Breakdown of ¿El recibo del camión? Ya te lo he dado.
del
from the / of the
dar
to give
te
to you / you (direct object)
ya
already / now (right now)
lo
it / him (direct object)
el recibo
the receipt
haber
(auxiliary) have
el camión
the truck
Questions & Answers about ¿El recibo del camión? Ya te lo he dado.
Why is ya placed before the pronouns, and not between he and dado?
Ya means "already" here. In English, we usually put "already" in the middle of the verb ("I have already given"). In Spanish, you can never put a word between the helping verb (he) and the past participle (dado). Because of this, adverbs like ya are usually placed right before the entire verb phrase, including its pronouns.
What do te and lo mean here, and why are they together?
This is a double object pronoun. Te means "to you" (who receives the action) and lo means "it" (the thing being given, which is el recibo). When used together, the "person" pronoun (te) always comes before the "thing" pronoun (lo).
Could I attach te lo to the end of dado instead?
No. With the present perfect tense, object pronouns like te lo must always go before the conjugated form of haber (which is he in this sentence). You can never attach pronouns to a past participle like dado.
Since lo refers to el recibo, does the word dado change if the object is feminine or plural?
No. When you form the present perfect tense using the helping verb haber, the past participle always ends in -o (dado). It never changes to match the gender or number of the object, even though a pronoun like lo or la is in the sentence.
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