Thread: I was .. and I was construction

Hi there

I recently heard on a Spanish podcast:

Fui director del museo y lo fui durante 30 meses.

Or:

I was director of the musem, for 30 months.

This construction "lo fui" is interesting to me. I've heard this construction used before but:

Does anyone know the name of this so I can investigate it more?
Does anyone know any rules about how and when this kind of construction can and cant be used
Can anyone give more examples?

Thanks!
Michael

Hi michaelveloz,

I'm not sure what this construction is called, but the "lo" refers to the fact that the person was director of the museum. It actually sounds a little redundant in the example that you gave; if you were to translate it, it would be something like "I was director of the museum and I was for 30 months." Where in English it's not necessary to say anything other than the subject and the verb, in Spanish you can add the "lo" to refer to the fact that he was the director of the museum.

Another example would be something like:
-¿Andrés es alto?
-Sí, lo es.

In this case, the "lo" refers to the fact that Andrés is tall. Also, note that in this construction "lo" is neutral; it remains the same whether the subject (in this case, Cecilia) is masculine or feminine:

-¿Cecilia es inteligente?
-Sí, lo es.

Hope that helps!

Wow! Thanks matthewg!! That was a very interesting answer!
How would you say it so that it has certain emphasis and still sounds good to you?

Hi MaríaLaura! What exactly are you referring to when you say "so it has a certain emphasis"?

Lo is an "object pronoun" used to replace a clause or an adjective or a predicate noun of either gender, whether singular or plural.

clause:
Aprender la gramatica es muy dificil. Si, lo se. (Lo = aprender la gramatica)

adjective: see matthewg above:
-¿Andrés es alto? -Sí, lo es. (Lo = alto)

predicate noun:
?Eres director? No, pero lo fui. (Lo = director)

Warning: I am not a native speaker of Spanish so listen carefully to what others have to say.

Fui director del museo y lo fui durante 30 meses = I was director of the museum and that was during 30 months.

Hey Matthewg! What I meant is that in Spanish " Fui director del museo y lo fui durante 30 meses" has certain emphasis in the fact the I was the director for 30 years. There's a slight change of meaning in saying "Fui director.. por 30 años" and "Fui director, y lo fui por 30 años" Do you know what I mean?

Originally Posted by MariaLaura

Hey Matthewg! What I meant is that in Spanish " Fui director del museo y lo fui durante 30 meses" has certain emphasis in the fact the I was the director for 30 years. There's a slight change of meaning in saying "Fui director.. por 30 años" and "Fui director, y lo fui por 30 años" Do you know what I mean?

Hi MaríaLaura, now I see what you mean. I think I would say something like "I worked as director of the museum, which I did for 30 months."

I don't think there is a comparable way in English to create the emphasis. You would have to say something like:

I was the director, in fact, I was the director for 30 years.
I was the director for all of 30 years.
I was the director for three entire decades.