Spanish · Chapter 37 · Lesson 15 · Grammar primer
Cleft sentences and emphasis: fue Pedro quien...
How Spanish spotlights one element: fue Pedro quien lo hizo (it was Pedro who did it), lo que quiero es descansar (what I want is to rest), and fronting an object with a resumptive pronoun.
The short version
Front the object and you must echo it
Everyday Spanish moves the object to the front and leaves a resumptive pronoun behind to hold its old place: el coche lo arreglé ayer, a María la vi ayer, eso no lo sabía. The doubled pronoun is not sloppiness, it is required. El coche arreglé is simply ungrammatical.
El coche lo arreglé ayer.
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