Why is 'le' in this?
Why is there a 'le' in the phrase 'siempre le presta atencion al profesor'? Is siempre presta atencion al profesor not enough?
4 Answers
I don't think what the second answer says is inconsistent with the first but maybe I just don't understand the second poster. Would you please post the link to the article to which you refer?
No it is not enough. If you like I could post a link to an article I just read covering this or you could read about it on previous threads here on this site.
I like to refer to it as the redundant, anticipatory pronoun, but the article I read just called it a duplicative object pronoun or some such. Whatever you call it, it is required whenever the prepositional a xxx. is present.
Me da (tú) el libro a mí. If the a mí is there so must the me pronoun.
Give me the book.
Me da el libro. It is the "a mi" that is optional, not the indirect object pronoun.
I like to think of the.. a xxx as a clarifier phrase explaining who the pronoun refers to. That way you remember that if it is there to clarify a pronoun, you must have the pronoun.
This construction refers to both direct object and indirect object pronouns.
La llama a ella. Since the a ella is present so must be the La.
Call her.
La llama. Again, it is the clarifier a ella that is optional.
It is a rule of "proper" Spanish. Anytime one specifies an indirect object (here el profesor), you must use an indirect pronoun. Since the indirect object pronoun for el profesor is le, you have le here.
There are many threads here on this topic. Search for some including the responses by Lazarus. The usage is also included in one of our lessons here at this site.
[1]: Indirect objects
You might find this article interesting: (the lesson I'm searching for is also an About.com lesson )
the article above is the one that I was looking for. Read this in the article:
This is a rule of Spanish grammar: Whenever you use the prepositional personal pronouns with the a preposition (a mí, a ti, a él, etc.) to express a direct or an indirect object in a sentence (usually in order to emphasize), you must "dupplicate" this object with the corresponding direct or indirect object pronoun. Conoces a mí is wrong. Me conoces a mí or me conoces are right. Conoció a ellos is wrong. Los conoció a ellos or los conoció are right.
