Breakdown of ¡La de tiempo que pierden en ese ocio improductivo!
de
from / of
en
in / on / at
ese
that (masculine)
el tiempo
the time
Questions & Answers about ¡La de tiempo que pierden en ese ocio improductivo!
What exactly does La de mean at the beginning of this sentence?
It is a very common, emphatic shorthand for la cantidad de (the amount of). At a B2 level, you will often hear native speakers use ¡La de... que...! to marvel at or exaggerate the sheer volume of something. For example, ¡La de cosas que tengo que hacer! (The amount of things I have to do!).
Since this lesson is about spending time using pasarse + gerund, could we use that structure here?
You could use it, but it changes the meaning. The verb perder specifically highlights that the time is being wasted or lost, whereas pasarse neutrally describes spending time. If you wanted to use the lesson's structure to complain about them spending time this way, you could say ¡Se la pasan perdiendo el tiempo en ese ocio improductivo!
Why do we use the preposition en after pierden here?
When talking about wasting, spending, or investing time on a specific thing or activity, Spanish verbs like perder (to waste/lose), gastar (to spend), and invertir (to invest) are typically followed by the preposition en. It functions just like saying you waste time on something in English.
Is ocio the most common way to say 'free time' in Latin America?