“Lo” as a Way of Saying “It” in Spanish – Lesson 43

Lo: a tiny word you’ll see everywhere

Today’s purple grammar lesson is all about one tiny word: lo. It’s used a lot in Spanish, and it has different jobs. Today we look at the most common ones: lo as a way of saying “it”, and the combination lo que.

Lo = it

No = not, sé = I know (from saber, to know; with a tilde, because se without one is a different word). Add lo, and it becomes “I don’t know it“. In English you’d just say “I don’t know”, but Spanish speakers say no lo sé all the time.

Notice where lo goes: before the verb. Spanish says “I it know”, not “I know it”.

Lo stuck to the verb: hacerlo, comerlo

Lo can also be glued directly to the end of a verb in its basic form (the infinitive), with no space:

Hacer + lo = hacerlo (to do it). Comer + lo = comerlo (to eat it). One word! You’ve seen this before: intentarlo (to try it) in the conjunctions lesson.

Two ways to say the same thing

When you have two verbs together (like voy a hacer), you can choose where lo goes: glued to the end of the second verb, or before the first verb. Both are 100% correct and mean exactly the same:

Lo at the end	Lo in front	English
Voy a hacerlo.	Lo voy a hacer.	I’m going to do it.
Voy a comerlo.	Lo voy a comer.	I’m going to eat it.
Quiero verlo.	Lo quiero ver.	I want to see it.

It’s up to you which one you use. Personally, I like gluing it to the end: voy a hacerlo. But maybe you prefer to get lo out of the way first: lo voy a hacer. Both work!

Lo que: what, the thing that

The last common use: lo que. Literally it’s “it that”, but in English we usually say what (as in “the thing that”):

Let’s break the first one down: lo que (what) + tienes (you have) + es (is) + algo especial (something special). Literally “it that you have is something special”.

Careful: lo que is not the question word “what?”. For a question, you use ¿qué? with a tilde: ¿Qué tienes? (What do you have?). Lo que is for “what” in the middle of a normal sentence.

Recap: lo

Spanish	English
No lo sé.	I don’t know (it).
Lo quiero.	I want it.
Voy a hacerlo.	I’m going to do it.
Lo voy a hacer.	I’m going to do it.
Voy a comerlo. / Lo voy a comer.	I’m going to eat it.
Lo que tienes…	What you have…
Lo que necesito es…	What I need is…

Practice: lo

Say it out loud first, then click to check.

1. Say “I don’t know” the way Spanish speakers usually do.

No lo sé.

2. Say “I want it”.

Lo quiero.

3. Say “I’m going to do it” (lo at the end).

Voy a hacerlo.

4. Now say it with lo in front.

Lo voy a hacer.

5. Say “I’m going to eat it” in two ways.

Voy a comerlo. / Lo voy a comer.

6. Say “What I need is a coffee”.

Lo que necesito es un café.

Quiz: lo

8 questions. ¿Lo sabes? Let’s see!

Frequently asked questions

Is it always “lo” for “it”?

Not always. Lo is for masculine things (and for ideas or situations, like no lo sé). For a feminine thing, Spanish uses la: ¿La manzana? La voy a comer (The apple? I’m going to eat it). We’ll dive into this in a later lesson.

Why is “sé” written with a tilde?

Because se without a tilde is a different word (it shows up in phrases like ¿cómo se dice…?). Sé with a tilde means “I know”. Another pair that a tilde tells apart, just like in lesson 27.

Before you go to the next lesson

You’ll see lo everywhere from now on, so take a moment to let this sink in. Try saying a few sentences out loud in both ways: voy a hacerlo and lo voy a hacer. ¡Hasta la próxima!