Word
¿El veterinario explicó lo de cojear de esa pata?
Meaning
Did the vet explain the thing about limping from that paw?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of ¿El veterinario explicó lo de cojear de esa pata?
de
from / of
ese
that (masculine)
explicar
to explain
el veterinario
the veterinarian
Questions & Answers about ¿El veterinario explicó lo de cojear de esa pata?
Why do we use lo de before cojear here instead of just saying lo que?
Lo de is used to refer to a situation, matter, or event that the speaker and listener already know about, translating roughly to "the matter of" or "the thing about." Since cojear is an infinitive acting as a noun, we need the preposition de to connect it to the neuter pronoun lo. If you used lo que, you would need a fully conjugated verb clause instead, like lo que pasa con su pata (what is happening with its paw).
Why is cojear in the infinitive when the English translation uses the -ing word "limping"?
After prepositions in Spanish, like the de in lo de, verbs must always be in the infinitive form. They never take the gerund form (-ando or -iendo). Even though English uses the -ing form "limping" as a noun in this sentence, Spanish requires the base infinitive cojear.
In English we usually say an animal limps "on" a leg. Why does this sentence use cojear de esa pata?
The verb cojear specifically takes the preposition de to indicate which limb is affected. This is just how the verb is paired in Spanish. Trying to translate "on" directly by using en or sobre here would sound unnatural to a native speaker.
Could I use pierna instead of here?