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A confusing sentence

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Wahooka
February 13, 2014, 12:39 PM
Ola todos!

Not sure if this belongs in "Grammar" forum , but I'm very confused by this sentence.

"Es que se lo tengo que contar a una mujer"

It translates as "its just that I have to tell it to a woman".

However, I don't understand what "se" and "que" are doing here and what they mean in this context.

Does "Es que" mean "Its just"? Then what is "se" doing in this sentence?

I would have thought that "le" is the indirect object, not "se".

Rusty
February 13, 2014, 03:07 PM
¡Hola a todos!

Not sure if this belongs in the "Grammar" forum , but I'm very confused by this sentence.

"Es que se lo tengo que contar a una mujer"

It translates as "it's just that I have to tell it to a woman".

However, I don't understand what "se" and "que" are doing here and what they mean in this context.

Does "Es que" mean "It's just"? Then what is "se" doing in this sentence?

I would have thought that "le" is the indirect object, not "se".You are correct about 'le' being the indirect object pronoun. But the Spanish language doesn't allow 'le lo', so the 'le' is changed to 'se'.

'Es que' literally translates as 'it is that', but the normal translation is "it's just that."

Wahooka
February 13, 2014, 06:04 PM
Gracias un otra vez!

Rusty
February 13, 2014, 06:07 PM
¡Gracias un otra vez!¡No hay de qué!

Don't forget the opening exclamation mark when writing. There's an 'Accents' drop-down menu just above where you type that contains all the special characters you'll need. ;)