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I'm trying to get used to using pronouns when I speak/write Spanish. I'm trying to change the sentence "Without the internet, we would be lost." to "Without it, we would be lost." Is it grammatically correct to say "Sin la, estaríamos perdidos."? Is the "it" a direct object in the sentence, or not?

I realize this probably has a really simple answer, but I couldn't find much of a clear answer while Googling. Any responses are appreciated!

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  • No, it would be "sin él." But I personally treat the internet as masculine, so I would say, "sin ella." (This is assuming of course that in the previous sentence the internet was mentioned explicitly, so there would be no doubt what you were talking about.) // Note that this construction is a bit awkward, but I appreciate that right now you're just trying to make yourself some practice problems. At this stage it's okay if the sentences you create sound a bit artificial. That said -- if you are not working with a textbook, I would suggest that you consider doing so, to take advantage of ...
    – aparente001
    Dec 10, 2017 at 4:01
  • the well-thought-out exercises in textbooks. Also, textbooks develop the grammar in a very step-by-step way. (Building your knowledge of a language in this guided, step-by-step way has the advantage that one is less likely to develop awkward habits.)
    – aparente001
    Dec 10, 2017 at 4:03
  • Thanks for the reply! Yes, I was making the assumption that the internet had been mentioned in a previous sentence and would be understood via context.
    – Garren Miller
    Dec 10, 2017 at 4:30
  • ....@GarrenMiller - Yes, good. // I had a mistake in my comment. I meant: No, it would be "sin ella." But I personally treat the internet as masculine, so I would say, "sin él."
    – aparente001
    Dec 10, 2017 at 4:45
  • 2
    @aparente001 Any reason why you haven't turned this into an answer?
    – pablodf76
    Dec 10, 2017 at 12:56

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You can translate it in this sentence with "ella".

To give the sentence any sense, the word internet should be mentioned before somewhere. If you just say "Sin ella estariamos perdidos" sounds like "without her, we would be lost". You can say "Internet es hoy en día imprescindible, sin ella estaríamos perdidos." (Internet is nowadays essential, without it we would be lost)

Although previous use is grammatically correct, replacing Internet with a pronoun sounds a bit unnatural to my ears. To make it sound more natural without repeating the word Internet I would probably use a more general word, e.g. : "Sin esta tecnología estaríamos perdidos"

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  • If used right after the first reference to the internet, ella sounds natural to me. A bit farther from that, I don't know.
    – pablodf76
    Dec 18, 2017 at 15:29

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