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No tenemos nada para el espía; no lo pongas en peligro.

No tenemos nada para el espía; no lo pongas en peligro.
We have nothing for the spy; do not put him in danger.
From Lesson 134:Pronouns with negative commands (no me lo des)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about No tenemos nada para el espía; no lo pongas en peligro.

Why is lo placed before pongas?
Because this is a negative command! In negative commands (telling someone not to do something), object pronouns like lo always go between the no and the verb. If it were a positive command like "put him," it would attach to the end of the verb: ponlo.
Why does the verb poner change to pongas here?
Pongas is the negative informal command form of poner (to put). To make a negative tú command, you take the present-tense "yo" form (pongo), drop the -o, and add the opposite ending. Since poner is an -er verb, we add -as to get no pongas.
Why does it say no tenemos nada? Isn't that a double negative?
Yes, and double negatives are completely normal and required in Spanish! When a negative word like nada (nothing/anything) comes after the verb, you must also put a no before the verb. Literally, it translates to "We don't have nothing."
Why does espía use the masculine article el if it ends in "-a"?
The word espía (spy) is the exact same word for both men and women. You just change the article to match the person's gender. Here, el espía tells us the spy is male, which is why we also use the masculine pronoun lo later in the sentence. A female spy would be la espía.

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