Word
El anuncio engaña al consumidor, lo que es un fraude.
Meaning
The ad deceives the consumer, which is a fraud.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of El anuncio engaña al consumidor, lo que es un fraude.
ser
to be
un
a, an (masculine)
al
to the
que
that / than
Questions & Answers about El anuncio engaña al consumidor, lo que es un fraude.
Why do we use lo que here instead of just que?
The word que normally means "that" or "which" and points back to a specific noun. But here, the fraud isn't the ad itself, nor the consumer. The fraud is the entire situation (the fact that the ad is deceiving). When "which" refers back to a complete preceding clause or an abstract idea rather than a single noun, we use the neuter phrase lo que.
Can I say lo cual instead of lo que in this sentence?
Yes, absolutely! In this context, lo que and lo cual both mean "which" and refer back to the previous clause. They are interchangeable here, though lo cual sounds a bit more formal. Just remember that if you were starting a sentence with "What..." (like "What I want is..."), you could only use lo que.
Why is it al consumidor instead of just el consumidor?
This is a great refresher on the "personal a." The consumer is the direct object receiving the action of the verb engaña (deceives). Because a consumer is a person, Spanish requires the preposition a before it. When a meets the masculine article el, they combine into the contraction al.
Is anuncio a false friend? It looks exactly like "announcement".