Breakdown of Él es inocente, pero quieren llevarlo a la prisión.
ser
to be
él
he
pero
but
a
to
querer
to want
llevar
to take (carry, transport)
lo
it / him (direct object)
la prisión
the prison
inocente
innocent
Questions & Answers about Él es inocente, pero quieren llevarlo a la prisión.
Why is lo attached to the end of llevar in llevarlo?
When a verb is in its infinitive form (the basic dictionary form ending in -ar, -er, or -ir), you can attach object pronouns directly to the end of it. Here, lo means "him", so combining it with llevar (to take) gives us llevarlo (to take him).
Could I put lo before the conjugated verb instead?
Yes! When you have a conjugated verb followed by an infinitive (like quieren llevar), you have two choices for pronoun placement. You can attach the pronoun to the end of the infinitive (quieren llevarlo) or put it right before the conjugated verb (lo quieren llevar). Both are perfectly natural and mean the exact same thing.
Why do we use a in a la prisión instead of en?
In Spanish, when you are talking about movement or directing an action toward a destination, you use the preposition a (to). Because llevar (to take/carry) involves moving someone from one place to another, we say they are taking him a (to) the prison. If he were already locked inside, you would use en (in).
Why does Él have an accent mark on the first letter?
The written accent mark changes the meaning of the word. With the accent, él is a pronoun meaning "he". Without the accent, el is an article meaning "the" for masculine nouns (like el perro). They sound exactly the same when spoken, so the accent is just there to help you tell them apart in writing.
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