No relaciones una cosa con la otra.

Breakdown of No relaciones una cosa con la otra.

no
no, not
con
with
otro
other
la cosa
the thing
relacionar
to relate, to connect

Questions & Answers about No relaciones una cosa con la otra.

Why does the verb relacionar end in -es here (relaciones)?
Because this is a negative command for tú ("don't connect"). To tell someone not to do something, Spanish uses the present subjunctive form. For -ar verbs like relacionar, the negative tú ending is -es. If you were telling them to connect it (a positive command), you would just use relaciona.
Why is the preposition con used instead of a?
The verb relacionar (to relate or connect) almost always pairs with con when linking two things together. While in English we might say "connect this to that", in Spanish you relate one thing with the other (relacionar con).
Why do we need the article la in la otra?
La otra translates to "the other [one]". The feminine article la is required here to match the gender of the noun we are talking about, which is cosa. If you dropped the la and just said con otra, it would change the meaning to "Don't connect one thing with another (different) thing" rather than "with the other thing".
How could I use this sentence's structure with 'lo de' to say 'Don't connect yesterday's situation with today's'?
You can perfectly swap out the general nouns (una cosa, la otra) for the neuter phrase lo de (the matter of / the situation regarding) to refer to understood events. You would say: No relaciones lo de ayer con lo de hoy.

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