Difference between Indirect Object Pronoun and Direct Object Pronoun?
Please help!
4 Answers
The direct object pronoun is the pronoun acted on directly by the verb. It answers the question What? or Who?
I bought it. What did you buy? It. It is the DOP.
The indirect object pronoun is who or what the action was done to or for. It.
I bought it for her. Who did you buy it for? Her. Her is the IOP.
It answers the question What? or Who?
Pure trivia: I thought you might be interested to know that asking that question does not work with some verbs (especially those like "gustar"):
His words surprised me.
What surprised me? His words. Therefore, "his words" is the direct object, right? Wrong! It is the subject of the sentence. Since there are so many verbs like this in Spanish, grammars strongly advice (in Spanish) not to ask things to the verb, because they often "answer" a lot of rubbish.
Kevin B said it well.
Here is a compact version of Kevin B's comment:
Direct objects answer "who" or what"
Indirect objects tell "to whom" or "for whom" something is done.
Example: I say it to you.. I say who or what? It. To whom or for whom do I say it? To you. "Te lo digo."
We buy them for you. We buy who or what? Them. To whom or for whom do we buy them? For you. "Te los compramos."
Remember! Verbs of communication often have an understood direct object. Whatever is communicated is frequently understood. Example: I write him. I write who or what? Some sort of message (not expressed, but understood). To whom do I write this message? To him. "Le escribo".
I tell her. I tell who or what? Some sort of news or message (not expressed, but understood). To whom do I tell this news? To her. "Le digo".
I hope this has helped...sometimes the verbs of communication can present a challenge if you don't remember that the direct object is the message that is communicated, and that it is frequently not expressed.
And yet a third version from a different perspective, just in case the other two excellent explanations were not enough. Think of verbs as belonging to three categories depending on the number of arguments they require in a sentence ("argument" is a phrase linked to a verb depending on its meaning):
verbs with 1 argument: they are verbs like "to sleep" or "to live". To make a sentence you just need 1 argument called subject (the "doer"): "I sleep", "The cat sleeps". You don't need to sleep anything or live anything -you just sleep and live.
verbs with 2 arguments: now, apart from the subject, you have what in English is called an object. You need the "doer" and do something to something or someone. Some examples could be "to lift" and "to touch". You need a person (or thing) who lifts, and something to lift, as well as a person who touches and something to touch.
verbs with 3 arguments: now we have a subject and two objects. Examples include "to give" and "to lend", where you need a subject (the "giver" or "lender"), an object (what you give or lend) and a person to give it or lend it to. The object given is called direct object, and the person is called indirect object.
Indirect objects indicate those affected (positively or negatively) by the action carried by the subject. In Spanish they can appear without the direct object with verbs that indicate how a person is affected by an event or thing. For example, in a verb like "gustar", from the Spanish perspective, the person who likes something is not doing anything, but being affected by external circumstances. The "doer" from the point of view of Spanish is the event or the thing that causes you to feel one way or another, but since those events do not require something to "give" or "lend" to you, like in "dar", they appear without the direct object. In English this construction is not frequent, but it does exist, as in "His words surprised me", where you are not the "doer", but "his words" -I am merely being affected by them, I am not "surprising his words". This sentence would also be constructed like in English.
And just to finish, Spanish has another type that does not exist in English:
verbs with 0 arguments: Examples include "Llueve" (it rains), where there is no subject, just pure "happening". This sentence requires no subject, and it cannot be given one either.
