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¿Eso lo ha roto él?

¿Eso lo ha roto él?
Has he broken that?
From Lesson 117:Irregular past participles (visto, escrito)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about ¿Eso lo ha roto él?

Wait, where does roto come from? It doesn't look like a normal past participle.
Roto is the irregular past participle of romper (to break). Instead of ending in -ido like a regular -er verb, it completely changes and ends in -to. So, ha roto means "has broken".
Why are both eso (that) and lo (it) in this sentence? Isn't that like saying "That, has he broken it?"
Exactly! In Spanish, when you move the direct object (eso) to the very front of the sentence for emphasis, you usually have to repeat it using a pronoun (lo) right before the verb. It literally translates to "That, has he broken it?", but in English we just say "Has he broken that?".
Why is él at the very end of the sentence? Could I put it at the beginning?
You could say ¿Él ha roto eso?, but putting él at the end adds a bit of surprise or emphasis—like asking, "Has he broken that?!" Spanish word order is very flexible, and leaving the subject for the end of a question is a common way to put the spotlight on it.
Why does the sentence use eso instead of ese or esa?
Eso is the neuter form of "that". We use it when we are talking about an object whose name or gender we don't know yet, or pointing to a general situation. If the speaker were pointing at a specific feminine object, like a window (una ventana), they would have used esa.

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