Breakdown of Pintemos los carteles ahora. ¡Sí, pintémoslos!
ahora
now
pintar
to paint
sí
yes
el cartel
the poster
los
them (masculine direct object)
Questions & Answers about Pintemos los carteles ahora. ¡Sí, pintémoslos!
Why does this sentence use pintemos instead of pintamos?
Pintemos is the present subjunctive form of pintar. In Spanish, the nosotros form of the present subjunctive is used to give a command to a group that includes yourself, translating to "Let's do something". Pintamos is just the standard present tense meaning "we paint".
Why is the pronoun los attached to the end of the verb in pintémoslos?
In Spanish, object pronouns must be attached directly to the end of affirmative commands. Because "let's paint them" is an affirmative command, the direct object pronoun los (meaning "them") gets tacked onto the end of pintemos.
Why does pintémoslos have an accent mark when pintemos doesn't?
I learned that you sometimes drop the final "s" in a "let's" command when adding a pronoun. Why didn't we drop it here?
You only drop the final "s" from a nosotros command when you attach the pronouns nos (like in sentémonos) or se (like in comprémoselo). Because we are attaching the direct object pronoun los, the "s" stays, making it pintémoslos.
If we decided not to paint them, where would the pronoun los go?
For negative commands, pronouns cannot be attached to the end of the verb. They have to go between the negative word and the verb. "Let's not paint them" would be No los pintemos.
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