direct and an indirect object pronouns

Question

Please translate:

Se lo enviaré a mi prima.

Please explain the translation as well if you can. Thanks!

Answer 1

I will send it to my cousin.

Enviaré (I will send-future, indicative)

lo=it

Se=le=you, her, him, them but in this case we have a clarifying prepositional phrase telling us that the le (se) refers to "my cousin".

You could go crazy and interpret the lo to mean him (I will send him to my cousin, but without any such context I would interpret the lo as "it")

Good use of Lola- that the indirect object "le" turns into a "se" if it is in front of another "lo/la." - Kerri, Mar 3, 2010

Ya that's what was confusing. Thanks you. - spanman, Mar 4, 2010

Why is the indirect object even there if we already know it's his cousin? - TheSilentHero, Mar 4, 2010

It's often referred to as a redundant pronoun. The le is mandatory, the a mi prima is optional. It merely clarifies who the le is. - 0074b507, Mar 4, 2010

Answer 2

as explained by gfreed, the le (him) has to change to se. a silly way i was taught to remember this is that you can't le lo or le la b/c it sounds weird, so you have to se lo or se la. i was taught that many years ago, and haven't forgot!

Answer 3

However, I seem to recall that in certain situations, having the indirect object pronoun present can clarify certain confusions that can arise due to Spanish's extremely lax word order rules or something like that.

Actually, I find that the personal "a" is what clarifies who is the indirect object and who is the subject.

Dio el regalo María.

María gave the gift.

Le dio el regalo a María.

[he] gave the gift to María.

Answer 4

Why is the indirect object even there if we already know it's his cousin?

I don't really know, but it is a rule of Spanish grammar. You can have the indirect object pronoun without the indirect object noun, but not the other way around. If you have the indirect object noun (a mi primera), then you must include the indirect object pronoun (le), which the English mind finds disturbing since in English the very purpose of the pronoun is to be used in place of the noun.

However, I seem to recall that in certain situations, having the indirect object pronoun present can clarify certain confusions that can arise due to Spanish's extremely lax word order rules or something like that.