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The article lo - Easy Learning Grammar Spanish

  • Unlike the other Spanish articles, and articles in English, lo is NOT used with a noun.
  • lo can be used with a masculine singular adjective or past participle (the -ado and -ido forms of regular verbs) to form a noun.
Lo único que no me gusta ...The only thing I don’t like ...
Esto es lo importante.That’s the important thing.
Lo bueno de eso es que …The good thing about it is that …
Sentimos mucho lo ocurrido.We are very sorry about what happened.
  • For more information on the Past participle, see The perfect tense.
  • lo is also used in a number of very common phrases:
•a lo mejormaybe, perhaps
A lo mejor ha salido.Perhaps he’s gone out.
•por lo menosat least
Hubo por lo menos cincuenta heridos.At least fifty people were injured.
•por lo generalgenerally
Por lo general me acuesto temprano.I generally go to bed early.
  • lo can also be used with que to make lo que (meaning what).
Vi lo que pasó.I saw what happened.
Lo que más me gusta es nadar.What I like best is swimming.
Grammar Extra!lo can be used with de followed by a noun phrase to refer back to something the speaker and listener both know about.
Lo de tu hermano me preocupa mucho.That business with your brother worries me a lot.
Lo de ayer es mejor que lo olvides.It would be best to forget what happened yesterday.
lo can be used with an adjective followed by que to emphasize how big/small/beautiful and so on something is or was. The adjective must agree with the noun it describes.
No sabíamos lo pequeña que era la casa.We didn’t know how small the house was.
No te imaginas lo simpáticos que son.You can’t imagine how nice they are.
lo can also be used in a similar way with an adverb followed by que.
Sé lo mucho que te gusta la música.I know how much you like music.
Key points
  • lo is classed as an article in Spanish, but is not used with nouns.
  • You can use lo with a masculine adjective or past participle to form a noun.
  • You also use lo in a number of common phrases.
  • lo que can be used to mean what in English.
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Table of contents
  • Nouns
    • Using nouns
    • Gender
    • Forming plurals
  • Articles
    • Different types of article
    • The definite article: el, la, los and las
    • The indefinite article: un, una, unos and unas
    • The article lo
  • Adjectives
    • Using adjectives
    • Making adjectives agree
    • Word order with adjectives
    • Comparatives and superlatives of adjectives
    • Demonstrative adjectives
    • Interrogative adjectives
    • Adjectives used in exclamations
    • Possessive adjectives (1)
    • Possessive adjectives (2)
    • Indefinite adjectives
  • Pronouns
    • Personal pronouns: subject
    • Personal pronouns: direct object
    • Personal pronouns: indirect object
    • Order of object pronouns
    • Further information on object pronouns
    • Pronouns after prepositions
    • Possessive pronouns
    • Indefinite pronouns
    • Relative pronouns
    • Interrogative pronouns
    • Demonstrative pronouns
  • Verbs
    • Overview of verbs
    • The present tenses
    • The present simple tense
    • ser and estar
    • The present continuous tense
    • The imperative
    • Reflexive verbs
    • The future tense
    • The conditional
    • The preterite
    • The imperfect tense
    • The perfect tense
    • The pluperfect or past perfect tense
    • The passive
    • The gerund
    • Impersonal verbs
    • The subjunctive
    • The infinitive
    • Prepositions after verbs
    • Verbal Idioms
  • Negatives
  • Questions
    • Asking questions in Spanish
  • Adverbs
    • How adverbs are used
    • How adverbs are formed
    • Comparatives and superlatives of adverbs
    • Common adverbs
    • Position of adverbs
  • Prepositions
    • Using prepositions
    • a, de, en, para and por
    • Some other common prepositions
  • Conjunctions
    • y, o, pero, porque and si
    • Some other common conjunctions
    • Split conjunctions
  • Spelling
  • Stress
    • Which syllable to stress
    • The acute accent used to show meaning
  • Numbers
  • Time and date
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