Learn Spanish (Latin America): Nos hizo repetir la sentadilla.

Nos hizo repetir la sentadilla.

He made us repeat the squat.

Breakdown of Nos hizo repetir la sentadilla.

Questions & Answers about Nos hizo repetir la sentadilla.

I recently learned to use que and the subjunctive to tell someone to do something. Why don't we use it here?

While you can technically use hacer que plus the subjunctive, it is much more common and natural to use hacer directly followed by an infinitive verb (like repetir). This causative structure works exactly like English: he 'made us repeat'.

Can I attach nos to the end of the infinitive, making it Hizo repetirnos la sentadilla?

No, you cannot. With causative verbs like hacer (to make) and dejar (to let), the pronoun showing who is being forced or allowed to do the action must go before the conjugated verb (hizo). Think of nos hizo repetir as one unbreakable unit.

Is nos a direct or indirect object in this sentence?

It is an indirect object here. A special rule for hacer plus an infinitive is that if the second verb has its own direct object (here, la sentadilla is what was repeated), the person forced to do the action becomes the indirect object. Because nos is the same word for both, it looks identical. However, if you wanted to say 'He made him repeat the squat', you would have to use the indirect object le: Le hizo repetir la sentadilla.

How do we know who made us repeat the exercise?