Breakdown of Alguien tiene que proteger su identidad, ¡no lo traiciones!
no
no, not
tener
to have
su
his/her/its/their/your (formal)
que
that / than
lo
it / him (direct object)
alguien
someone
proteger
to protect
traicionar
to betray
la identidad
the identity
Questions & Answers about Alguien tiene que proteger su identidad, ¡no lo traiciones!
Why is lo placed before the verb in no lo traiciones?
With negative commands (telling someone not to do something), object pronouns like lo must go before the verb. If this were a positive command telling someone to do it ("Betray him!"), the pronoun would attach directly to the end of the verb: ¡traiciónalo!
Why does the verb end in "-es" (traiciones) if traicionar is an "-ar" verb?
Why is there a que between tiene and proteger?
How do we know su identidad means "his identity"? Couldn't su mean "her" or "their"?
You are exactly right that su can mean "his", "her", "your" (formal), or "their". We can figure out it means "his" from the context: the second half of the sentence uses the direct object pronoun lo ("him") in no lo traiciones. If it meant "her identity", the second half would say no la traiciones.
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