Breakdown of Ayer lo vi hacer una figura compleja y la de su hijo.
de
from / of
y
and
una
a, an (feminine)
ver
to see / to look / appear
el hijo
son
su
his/her/its/their/your (formal)
hacer
to do / to make
lo
it / him (direct object)
la
the (feminine)
ayer
yesterday
la figura
figure
complejo
complex
Questions & Answers about Ayer lo vi hacer una figura compleja y la de su hijo.
Why does lo go before vi? Can it be attached to hacer?
Yes, it can! With verbs of perception like ver (to see) and oír (to hear) followed by an infinitive, object pronouns can either go before the conjugated verb (lo vi hacer) or be attached to the end of the infinitive (vi hacerlo). Both are grammatically correct and widely used in everyday speech.
Since hacer has its own direct object (una figura), shouldn't 'him' be the indirect object le?
According to strict traditional grammar, yes. When the infinitive has a direct object, the person performing the action is technically the indirect object. However, in Latin American Spanish, it is very common and completely natural to use the direct object pronoun (lo or la) with perception verbs regardless of what follows.
How does la de translate to 'his son's'?
Spanish doesn't use an apostrophe 's' for possession. Instead, it uses the structure '[item] of [owner]'. When the item is already known from context, we drop the noun and just use a definite article (el, la, los, las). Here, la replaces la figura, so la de su hijo literally means 'the one of his son'.
Why is it una figura compleja instead of una compleja figura?
Descriptive adjectives like compleja generally come after the noun they modify in Spanish to classify or distinguish it from others. Placing it before the noun would sound overly poetic or emphasize the complexity in a very subjective way, which doesn't fit a straightforward observation like this one.
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