matarlas

Matarlas is a Spanish verbal phrase formed by the verb matar, meaning “to kill,” plus the feminine plural direct object pronoun las, meaning “them.” When attached to an infinitive, matarlas conveys the idea of killing a group of feminine objects or people referred to by the pronoun. The same pattern with masculine or mixed groups uses los or a different object pronoun, as in matarlos.

Grammatically, matarlas can be used in various constructions by conjugating matar while keeping the pronoun attached to the infinitive. Examples include voy a matarlas (“I am going to kill them”) and no las mates (“do not kill them”). In participial or gerund forms, the form becomes matándolas (“killing them”), and in negative imperatives or other moods, the pronoun placement and agreement follow standard Spanish rules for clitic pronouns.

Usage and context are important: matarlas appears primarily in narrative, dialogue, or quoted speech, and it denotes violence. In everyday speech, the phrase is strong and potentially disturbing, so it is typically avoided in casual conversation unless it serves a clear literary, cinematic, or rhetorical purpose.

See also: Spanish verb conjugation; direct object pronouns in Spanish; clitic pronouns; infinitive constructions; gender agreement in object pronouns.