Pronouns - Part 2 Indirect Object Pronuns (Spanish)

Article kindly donated by Rafa Canet - Open University Tutor (L194 & L140)

Indirect object pronouns are pronouns which are on the receiving end of an action.

Eg      She sent a letter to him

Notice that only the third person of the singular and plural are slightly different from the direct object pronouns.

position of the object pronouns

Indirect Object Pronouns
Te	to you
Le	To him/her/it
Nos	To us
Os	To you
Les	To them

•      Usually object pronouns come before the verb.

Eg      Quiero el libro       Lo quiero

• If the verb is in infinitive or gerund the object pronoun can either be before or after the verb where it would form one word.

Eg      Quiero comprarlo  lo quiero comprar

• If the verb is in the imperative form the pronoun must go after the verb unless is a negative command

Eg     Dáme el libro

          No lo pierdas

two object pronouns together

•     Sometimes two of these object pronouns can be used together; when this happens, the indirect object pronouns is always put first.

Eg    Mi padre compra el libro para nosotros.        Mi padre nos lo compra

•     If both are third person the indirect object pronoun changes to se to avoid having two words beginning with l-

Eg     Ramón manda el libro a Ana

Ramón le manda el libro    Ramón lo manda a Ana       Ramón se lo manda

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Pronouns - Part 1 Direct Object Pronuns

Article kindly donated by Rafa Canet - Open University Tutor (L194 & L140)

The object that directly receives the action of the verb is called the direct object. In English the pronoun comes after the verb, in Spanish it comes usually before the verb.
Bill hit the ball. where "ball" receives the action of the verb "hit."

The direct object can also be a person.
Sherry hit Bill.

The direct object answers the question "what?" or "whom?" with regard to what the subject of the sentence is doing.

Often, it is desirable to replace the name of the direct object with a pronoun.
Example 1
Paul bought the flowers. He took the flowers home and gave the flowers to his wife.
Example 2
Paul bought the flowers. He took them home and gave them to his wife.

When the pronoun replaces the name of the direct object, use the following pronouns:
PRONOMBRES DE OBJETO DIRECTO
me me nos us
te you os you
le Him / her les Them
lo, la It masc / fem. los, las Them mas. / fem.

Notice him can be translated by either lo or le, and them (masc.) by los or les.

Part 2 Indirect Object Pronouns to follow shortly, if you don't want to miss it then please click to the right to add yourself as a friend of this blog and you will be notified, you will not be sent anything other than article notifications