Using lo/la instead of eso/esa (object vs. demonstrative pronouns)

Question

If I want to say:

Can you hold this for me?

as I hand someone a book, say, which of the following is acceptable? And which is better?

1. ¿Me puedes sostener esto?
2. ¿Me lo puedes sostener?

Forget about the fact that this might not be the best way to translate to Spanish. I'm mostly asking about whether the common use of demonstrative pronouns as objects in English (this/that) is better translated as a direct object pronoun (lo/la) in Spanish? I simply don't hear many people use eso/esa as objects with the frequency it's used in English.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Both of your options are correct and perfectly acceptable. You should translate demonstrative pronouns as they are:

(D.P.) Can you hold this for me? => ¿Me puedes sostener esto?
(D.P.) Can you hold that for me? => ¿Me puedes sostener eso?
(D.O.) Can you hold it for me? => ¿Me lo puedes sostener?

In short: There's no need to change demonstrative pronouns to direct object pronoun when you translate them to spanish. Any of these expressions are absolutly common in spanish and the meaning is the same as in english.