Breakdown of Mi madre me pide que ponga el lavavajillas.
mi
my
la madre
the mother
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
poner
to put / to set (the table) / to make (an excuse) / to give, to impose (a fine, a penalty)
me
to me / myself (reflexive) / me (direct object)
pedir
to ask for; to order (food or drink)
el lavavajillas
the dishwasher
Questions & Answers about Mi madre me pide que ponga el lavavajillas.
Why does the Spanish sentence use que ponga instead of just an infinitive like the English "to put"?
In English, we say "asks me to put". But in Spanish, when one person (your mother) asks, tells, or wants another person (you) to do something, you must use que followed by the subjunctive mood. That is why we see ponga instead of the infinitive poner. If the mother were doing the action herself, she could just use an infinitive.
Why is the verb form exactly ponga here?
Ponga is the present subjunctive of poner. To form it, you take the "yo" form of the normal present tense (pongo), drop the "-o", and add the opposite ending. Since poner is an "-er" verb, it takes the "-ar" ending in the subjunctive (-a). It is in the "yo" form here because I am the one who needs to turn on the dishwasher.
Does poner usually mean "to put"? Why is it used for a dishwasher?
Why does el lavavajillas end in an "s" if it is just one dishwasher?
Lavavajillas is a compound word made from lava (washes) and vajillas (dishes). Because it literally means a machine that "washes dishes" (plural), the "s" is built into the word itself. Even though it ends in "s", it is a singular masculine noun in this sentence, which is why it takes the singular article el.
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