Él ganó la apuesta con un farol y se la pagaron.
He won the bet with a bluff and they paid it to him.
Breakdown of Él ganó la apuesta con un farol y se la pagaron.
él
he
y
and
un
a, an (masculine)
con
with
pagar
to pay
ganar
to win / to earn
la
it / her (direct object)
se
to him / to her / to them / to you (formal)
la apuesta
bet
el farol
the bluff
Questions & Answers about Él ganó la apuesta con un farol y se la pagaron.
How could I use one of the suffixes from this lesson to emphasize that it was a massive bluff?
Doesn't farol usually mean "lantern" or "street lamp"?
Yes, its literal meaning is a lantern or lamp. However, in the context of betting, poker, or arguments, un farol is the standard term for a "bluff." If you want to use it as a verb phrase ("to bluff"), the common expression is tirarse un farol.
Why is it se la pagaron? What do the se and la refer to?
The la is the direct object referring back to la apuesta (the bet). The se replaces the indirect object pronoun le (to him). In Spanish, whenever le or les comes right before lo, la, los, or las, it must change to se to avoid the clunky "le la" sound.
There is no "they" mentioned earlier in the sentence. Who is the subject of pagaron?
It is an impersonal "they." Just like in English when we say "they paid him," it doesn't refer to a specific group of people previously mentioned. Using the third-person plural (ellos/ellas) is a very common way in Spanish to express a passive idea, simply stating that the bet was paid out to him by whoever owed the money.
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