"Le voy" Problem

Question

Le voy a dar cinco pesos. Means "I'm going to give you five pesos" but "le" means "Him" and "voy" means "I" How does this work?

Answer 1

Le is the indirect object pronoun him/her/it, it is always required in Spanish, and it goes in front of the verb, unless the verb is infinitive or gerund, in which case it's attached to the end. But the thing to remember is that usted is really formally 3rd person singular, It's not You, it's more like Your Grace, which is why you use the same pronouns and verb conjugations as he/she/it. If you included the usted (which you would usually not do) it would read:

Le voy a dar cinco pesos a usted - I am going to give five pesos to you.

(to you = le) I am going (voy) to give (dar) and I'm giving them to you (le, usted = your grace)

It's a bit different than English, but extremely common. You'll get used to it.

So it means literaly: Him I to give five pesos. - mathew--borum, Aug 24, 2010

Which could be made into: I to give five pesos to your grace - mathew--borum, Aug 24, 2010

Answer 2

I would say that "le" is the formal version of "you" and "voy a" means "I'm going to..."

"El" means "him"