Breakdown of Les pedimos que afinen los instrumentos.
los
the (masculine plural)
pedir
to ask for / to order
que
that / than
les
to them / to you all
Questions & Answers about Les pedimos que afinen los instrumentos.
Why do we use que afinen (subjunctive) instead of an infinitive like in English?
In English, we say "We ask them to tune." But in Spanish, when a verb of influence like pedir (to ask or request) has a different subject than the action being requested (we ask vs. they tune), you typically use que followed by the subjunctive. So, it literally translates closer to "We ask that they tune."
This lesson is about swapping que plus the subjunctive for an infinitive. Can I say Les pedimos afinar los instrumentos here?
Yes, you can! With many verbs of influence (like permitir, prohibir, mandar, and pedir), Spanish allows you to drop the que and use the infinitive, even when the subjects are different. Les pedimos afinar los instrumentos is grammatically correct and means the exact same thing, though the version with que is generally more common in everyday speech.
Why is the pronoun les used instead of los?
The verb pedir takes an indirect object for the person you are asking. The direct object (the actual thing being asked for) is the entire phrase que afinen los instrumentos. Since we are asking something of them, they are the indirect receivers of the request, so we use the indirect object pronoun les.
Could pedimos be in the past tense here?