Breakdown of ¡La de estafadores que rodean a los turistas!
de
from / of
los
the (masculine plural)
que
that / than
el turista
the tourist
la
the (feminine)
el estafador
the swindler
rodear
to surround
a
personal 'a' (marks a human direct object)
Questions & Answers about ¡La de estafadores que rodean a los turistas!
Why do we use la de here instead of cuántos?
Why is the verb rodean plural if la is singular?
What is the purpose of the a before los turistas?
This is the "personal a". Whenever the direct object of a verb is a person or a specific group of people, Spanish requires an a before it. The tourists are the ones receiving the action of being surrounded, so they need this preposition.
Could I say lo de estafadores instead?
No, when exclaiming about the amount of a noun, you must always use la de because it implies la cantidad de. If you use lo de, it refers to "the matter about" or "the thing with" (like lo de ayer for "the thing about yesterday"), which doesn't fit this exclamatory structure.
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