Lo/la at the end, or in the sentence?

[wafflestomp]

Ok, so I heard this sentence when I was watching a spanish movie the other day... it was something like this:

El ordenador está roto... lo puedes arreglar?

I was always under the impression it would go something like "Puedes arreglarlo"

Are both acceptable? Is it regional? Or was I wrong?

[chileno]

Originally Posted by wafflestomp

Ok, so I heard this sentence when I was watching a spanish movie the other day... it was something like this:

El ordenador está roto... lo puedes arreglar?

I was always under the impression it would go something like "Puedes arreglarlo"

Are both acceptable? Is it regional? Or was I wrong?

Both are correct.

One thing though, the placement of the "lo" is different. In your version is appended to the verb. I am not sure of its gramatical term.

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by chileno

I am not sure of its gramatical term.

Clitic pronoun. (Or enclitic pronoun, but I don't think Spanish has any proclitics).

[chileno]

Originally Posted by pjt33

Clitic pronoun. (Or enclitic pronoun, but I don't think Spanish has any proclitics).

Thank you.

Is that for both cases? That is, when added to the verb or placed before the verb or just one of these cases?

[aleCcowaN]

Are both acceptable? Is it regional? Or was I wrong?

Yes. No. Not necessarily; maybe you had incomplete information.

lo puedes arreglar ---> you may find this more frequently with: informal speech, colloquial speech, people with less education, affirmative sentences
puedes arreglarlo ---> you may find this more frequently with: formal speech, written language, people with higher education, interrogative sentences

More frequently means exactly that. Nobody is going to think you are this or that because you use one or the other.

As a rule of thumb, both ways are right and you may use them indistinctly. Later you'll learn some exceptions, for instance "no te me caigas" but not "cáeteme" with the same meaning for "me", but don't worry now.

By the way:

enclitic pronoun: puedes arreglarlo
I found this is also called proclítico in Spanish: lo puedes arreglar
(I would had thought a proclitic only can be like seacabar, loarreglar)

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

I found this is also called proclítico in Spanish: lo puedes arreglar

Parece que la palabra española es más permisiva que la inglesa.

[ChilenoAlemanCanada]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

Yes. No. Not necessarily; maybe you had incomplete information.

lo puedes arreglar ---> you may find this more frequently with: informal speech, colloquial speech, people with less education, affirmative sentences
puedes arreglarlo ---> you may find this more frequently with: formal speech, written language, people with higher education, interrogative sentences

More frequently means exactly that. Nobody is going to think you are this or that because you use one or the other.

As a rule of thumb, both ways are right and you may use them indistinctly. Later you'll learn some exceptions, for instance "no te me caigas" but not "cáeteme" with the same meaning for "me", but don't worry now.

By the way:

enclitic pronoun: puedes arreglarlo
I found this is also called proclítico in Spanish: lo puedes arreglar
(I would have thought a proclitic can only be like seacabar, loarreglar) Placing 'can' before 'only' makes it sound more natural.

Just a couple corrections, hope you don't mind

Also, a simple past tense would be better used in this context, I'm not sure if our BrE users would disagree, but it would sound better to me, at least.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by ChilenoAlemanCanada

Just a couple corrections, hope you don't mind

Also, a simple past tense would be better used in this context, I'm not sure if our BrE users would disagree, but it would sound better to me, at least.

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by wafflestomp

Ok, so I heard this sentence when I was watching a spanish movie the other day... it was something like this:

El ordenador está roto... lo puedes arreglar?

I was always under the impression it would go something like "Puedes arreglarlo"

Are both acceptable? Is it regional? Or was I wrong?

Definitely you can use both phrases in your post, in that post is referring something like this in order you understand all your writing, I will translate you the phrase and you will proof me.

The computer is broken. Do you can fix it?

So you can see in that phrase Ordenador and computer they are the same.

Sincerely yours.

[wafflestomp]

Thanks for the explanations guys. Proclitic/clitic ??? never heard of those in my life!

But are you guys at a consensus that "Lo puedes arreglar" is more colloquial/informal and "Puedes arreglarlo" is more formal?

Also crotalito, you just say "Can you fix it" not "Do you can fix it". Never put "do" and "can" together.