How do you translate "I see him"?

Question

Is "I see him" "yo le veo" or "yo lo veo"?

Answer 1

Hello, and welcome to the forum. It's "lo veo." You use lo instead of le because lo is replacing a person; you could say, "Veo a [nombre]" but you are replacing his name with a pronoun. You are not seeing to him. You don't need to include yo at the beginning, because veo makes it clear who is doing the seeing.

Answer 2

Hi Beth. Welcome to the forum.

"Lo veo" is correct. You don't need the "yo" because the conjugation of "ver" as "veo" tells us that you are the one who see him.

Hope to see you around with more questions!

Answer 3

Definitely "yo le veo", as "yo lo veo" would translate to "I see it" although I'd probably leave out "yo" in both cases.

btw this could change a tad if you really want "I see him" when you might say "a el le veo"

I'm assuming that this is some specific, identifiable "him" and not some undefined person who might well be a "she" or even a scarecrow.

"Le" the direct object pronoun, not "le" the indirect object. Both are the same word, hence the confusion with seeing "to" him.

Hi, geofc. That is actually a case of leísmo. Le veo really means "I see TO..." - MacFadden, May 3, 2010

sorry mac - see my second edit - as explained by my son's Chilean Spanish teacher - Nick learnt Spanish as a first language - geofc, May 3, 2010

Senor Munoz - it comes back to me - geofc, May 3, 2010

I'm sorry if I tried to correct you when you were right, but I don't quite see what you mean. 'Le' can be used as direct object pronoun, as you say, especially in Spain (that's leísmo), and though it's accepted, it's not strictly correct in most places. - MacFadden, May 3, 2010

Am I still missing your point? As I understand it, though 'le' can be used as a direct object pronoun, it really isn't one. - MacFadden, May 3, 2010

"I see him" a simple subject verb object sentence - "yo le veo" ditto. The direct object is "le", a direct object pronoun. Excepting reflexive verbs or those which don't take a direct object there is only one choice for a masculine pronoun object, "le". - geofc, May 3, 2010

Answer 4

It's "Lo veo", because if it were "le veo", it would be like you are seeing to him, which is incorrect.

Answer 5

does this go with giving such as yo lo doy?

No, you'd say "Le doy" because you are giving it "to him." - --Mariana--, May 3, 2010

Answer 6

Hi Bethsavi,

I see him= Lo veo , yo lo veo.

Regards,

Mehmet