Breakdown of ¡Qué lío! No entiendo el problema.
el problema
the problem
no
no / not
qué
what
entender
to understand
Questions & Answers about ¡Qué lío! No entiendo el problema.
Why is there no word for "a" in ¡Qué lío! when we say "What a mess!" in English?
When using qué in an exclamation with a noun, Spanish drops the words for "a" or "an" (un or una). You just put qué directly next to the noun. For example, ¡Qué lío! (What a mess!) or ¡Qué lástima! (What a pity!).
Why does problema use the masculine word el if it ends in "-a"?
I thought the verb to understand was entender. Where does the "i" in entiendo come from?
Entender is a stem-changing verb. This means that when you conjugate it, the vowel in the middle of the word changes. For this verb, the "e" changes to "ie" in most present-tense forms. That is why it becomes yo entiendo (I understand), but keeps the original "e" in nosotros entendemos (we understand).
Does lío refer to a physical mess, like a dirty room?