Breakdown of Ustedes recolectan mucho dinero para la caridad. ¡Envíenselo ahora!
ustedes
you (plural)
mucho
many / a lot
ahora
now
el dinero
money
para
for
enviar
to send
lo
it / him (direct object)
la
the (feminine)
se
to him / to her / to them / to you (formal)
recolectar
to collect (gather, harvest)
la caridad
charity
Questions & Answers about Ustedes recolectan mucho dinero para la caridad. ¡Envíenselo ahora!
Who does the se in envíenselo refer to, and why isn't it le?
It refers to la caridad (the charity). Even though the English translation says "to them" (referring to the people at the organization), in Spanish it's a singular entity. You would normally use the indirect object pronoun le ("to it"), but whenever le or les comes right before lo, la, los, or las, it changes to se to avoid the awkward sound of "le lo".
Why are the pronouns attached to the end of the verb in envíenselo?
Because this is an affirmative command. When you tell someone to do something, object pronouns must be glued directly to the end of the verb. If this were a negative command (telling them not to do it), the pronouns would go before the verb: ¡No se lo envíen!
Why does envíenselo have an accent mark?
The original command is envíen (send), which already has a written accent on the í. When you attach the pronouns se and lo to the end, the word becomes much longer, but the spoken stress must stay in the exact same place. You keep the written accent to show that the stress stays on the í instead of moving to the new second-to-last syllable.
Why use recolectan instead of coleccionan for "collect"?
Recolectar is used for gathering things together, like collecting donations, gathering data, or harvesting crops. You would use coleccionar when you collect items as a personal hobby, like coins, stamps, or action figures.
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