Reunir y encontrar

Question

I went to meet You (formal) but did not find You (formal).

To me, it seems easy to say using informal (tú), but confusing in the formal version ¡because of the darn le/les/se mess that indirect objects and reflexives make!

So my attempts are...

Fuí a reunirme contigo pero no te encontré. ¿Que te pasó?

Fuí a reunirme con Usted pero no le encontré. ¿Que le pasó?

And if I am talking to someone else about the person that I did not meet...

I went to meet him but did not find him. Fuí a reunirme con él pero no lo encontré.

Por favor, me aconsejen.

aconséjenme (Affirmative command, pronoun at the end) - Delores--Lindsey, Jun 1, 2010

Fui has no accent mark on it., usted isn't capitalized unless abbreviated Ud. Vd. - 0074b507, Jun 2, 2010

Why do you use "le encontré", then "lo encontré"? - 0074b507, Jun 2, 2010

Answer 1

Andy,

It looks to me that you got most of it right. The only thing that I would suggest is to use le in your last example, just like you did in the "formal" example. I'd throw in a comma, too.

Fuí a reunirme con él, pero no le encontré.

Fui has no accent mark on it. - 0074b507, Jun 2, 2010

Answer 2

¡Que fantastico!

Am I correct in thinking that one would never use lo when speaking with a person about himself? i.e. I would never call a person lo but could call a person le

Yes, I see you (formal).

Sí le veo (a usted).

Sí lo veo.

(The person might think "Did you just call me 'it'? I'm not an 'it'!")

I think that is generally right. I am not a grammar expert, however, so I hesitate to use the word never! - waltico, Jun 1, 2010

"Si lo veo" is more likely to cause total confusion when the intended object believes you've changed the subject. - geofc, Jun 1, 2010

When the person is a direct object and male: lo is the correct pronoun for ( you-usted) , him, Sí, lo veo.. - 0074b507, Jun 2, 2010

Sí, le veo a usted is a leísmo. You'll see it used. - 0074b507, Jun 2, 2010

Por ejemplo - ¿Viste a Pablo en el almacén esta mañana? Sí, lo vi. - AndyHenry, Jun 2, 2010

So qfreed is inferring that **le veo** is not correct, but that contradicts geofc...humm...and leaves me still confused as to whether using the DO lo (instead of le) is OK to do when the DO is the person to whom I am speaking. - AndyHenry, Jun 2, 2010