Breakdown of Señor, no la toque, porque puede dañarla.
no
no, not
el señor
Mr. / sir / gentleman
porque
because
poder
to be able to / can
la
it / her (direct object)
tocar
to touch
dañar
to damage
Questions & Answers about Señor, no la toque, porque puede dañarla.
Why does tocar change to toque in this sentence?
Because we are giving a formal command to a Señor (sir), we use the usted form. For -ar verbs like tocar, the formal command ends in -e. However, if we just wrote "toce", the letter "c" would sound like an "s" in Spanish. We change the "c" to "qu" (toque) to keep the hard "k" sound of the original verb.
Why does the word la come before the verb in no la toque?
In negative commands (when you tell someone not to do something), the object pronoun must always go between the word no and the verb. So, "do not touch it" becomes no la toque.
Why is the second la attached to the end of the verb in dañarla?
Unlike negative commands, when a verb is in its basic, unconjugated form (the infinitive, like dañar), you can attach object pronouns directly to the end of it. You could also put the pronoun before the conjugated verb (porque la puede dañar), but attaching it to the infinitive is very common.
Why is "it" translated as la in this sentence?
In Spanish, all objects have a gender. The speaker is referring to a feminine noun that isn't named in this sentence but would be clear from the real-life situation (for example, a camera, la cámara). If "it" were a masculine object (like a phone, el teléfono), you would use lo instead.
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