Question 1

Why is le attached to the end of pongan in pónganle?

Accepted Answer

Because pongan is an affirmative command (telling someone to do something). In Spanish, object pronouns like le must be attached directly to the end of an affirmative command, creating a single combined word.

Question 2

Why is there an accent mark on pónganle?

Accepted Answer

When you attach a pronoun to a command, it adds an extra syllable to the word. The written accent mark is needed to keep the spoken stress on the original vowel. The standalone command is pronounced pon-gan. To keep the heavy stress on the "o" after adding le, we have to write it as pónganle.

Question 3

Why use le here? Doesn't le usually mean "to him" or "to her"?

Accepted Answer

It often does, but le is an indirect object pronoun that can also mean "to it". In this sentence, they are putting the bandage on the wound. The wound (la herida) is the indirect receiver of the bandage, so le is used here to mean "on it".

Question 4

Since la herida is a feminine noun, shouldn't the pronoun be la instead of le?

Accepted Answer

Direct object pronouns have masculine and feminine forms (lo and la), but the indirect object pronoun le is gender-neutral. We use le for "to him", "to her", and "to it", regardless of whether the original noun is masculine or feminine.

Question 5

Why do the verbs curen and pongan end in -n?

Accepted Answer

The speaker is addressing the Chicos (Guys), which is a plural group. In Latin America, the plural "you" is always ustedes, so these commands use the ustedes form of the verbs.

Chicos, curen la herida y pónganle esta venda.

Breakdown of Chicos, curen la herida y pónganle esta venda.

Questions & Answers about Chicos, curen la herida y pónganle esta venda.

Learn Chicos, curen la herida y pónganle esta venda and more in Spanish