Until now, you know the definite articles “el, la, los, las”:
the house: la casa the houses: las casas
the building: el edificio the buildings: los edificios
These articles are used in front of Nouns, like “casa, edificio”, but what happens when we have to put an article in front of an adjective or an adverb? In these cases, we use the neutral article “lo”:
Lo mejor de la fiesta fue la música. The best thing in the party was the music.
¡No sabes lo bien que canta Juana! You don’t know how well Juana sings!
When we say something like “the best thing”, “the worst thing”, “the most interesting thing”, in Spanish we don’t translate the word “thing” and we use the neutral article:
The best thing was the music. Lo mejor fue la música.
The worst thing was the food. Lo peor fue la comida.
The most interesting thing was the movie. Lo más interesante fue la película.
Now, notice what happens when we introduce a sentence with “what”:
What do you want? ¿Qué quieres?
What I want is to rest. Lo que quiero es descansar.
In the first interrogative sentence, we do not put an article, but in the second one, which is a declarative sentence, the neutral article is mandatory. Another example:
What did you say? ¿Qué dijiste?
What I said was the truth. Lo que dije fue la verdad.
A frequent source of confusion is when we need to use “el mismo, la misma, los mismos, las mismas, lo mismo”. But it is very easy to understand:
Yo tengo una camisa roja. Yo tengo la misma.
(I have the same shirt. Camisa is a feminine word, you say “la”)
Yo tengo dos camisas blancas. Yo tengo las mismas.
(I have the same shirts. Camisas is feminine plural, you say “las”)
Yo tengo un bolso negro. Yo tengo el mismo.
(I have the same bag. Bolso is a masculine word, you say “el”)
Yo tengo dos bolsos negros. Yo tengo los mismos.
(I have the same bags. Bolsos is masculine plural, you say “los”)
Yo tengo un bolso, una camisa y dos pantalones. Yo tengo lo mismo.
(I have a bag, a shirt and two trousers. Bolso is masculine, shirt is feminine and trousers are plural. I cannot decide, so I use the neutral form).
Now you know everything about the article “lo”. However, this word is also a pronoun, so you will see it again in another blog.
