Where is Miguel? Where are you?

Question

• Yo le tiro la pelota a Miguel. (I throw the ball to Miguel.) - To whom? To Miguel. Miguel = le
• Yo le tiro la pelota. (I throw the ball to him.)
• Yo le tiro la pelota a María. (I throw the ball to María.)
• Yo le tiro la pelota. (I throw the ball to her.)
• Yo le tiro la pelota a usted. (I throw the ball to you.)
• Yo le tiro la pelota. (I throw the ball to you.)
• Yo le tiro la pelota a la pared. (I throw the ball to the wall.)
• To le tiro la pelota. (I throw the ball to it.)

After the transformation Miguel, Maria, you all disappeared. Before transformation each sentence had a 'le' and after the transformation there still is 'le' and only the indirect object is vanished. Even when 'you' is concerned there is no sign of 'you'. What is going on here?

Answer 1

The le is the indirect object pronoun and according to rules given in the lessons on this site it is always to be included when there is an indirect object in the sentence.

The a Miguel, a Maria, a usted are only included to clarify who the le refers to. The sentence is grammatically correct without the clarifying prepostional phrase. It is not grammatically correct without the le according to general usage.

Not to quibble, but the sentences would be better translated as:

• (I throw Miguel the ball.)
• (I throw Maria the ball.)
• (I throw her the ball.)
• (I throw you the ball.)
• (I throw the ball to the wall.)
• (I throw it the ball.)

rather than using a prepositional phrase (to xxx), but either is commonly accepted.

• Very interesting and good to know. I always wondered about the redundant use of indirect objects. I have not gotten that far on this site, yet. - Tosh May 10, 2011
• There are also redundant direct objects, though less common. Just keep it in mind when studying. - qfreed May 10, 2011
• would you use lo/la for things that aren't people? - elCocoLoco May 10, 2011