Some help with les and la

Question

I say to them ===> yo les digo

I don't see her ===>yo no la veo

my question is why in the first we used les(indirect object pronoun)

while in the second sentence we used la( direct object pronoun) i think in both sentences we have to use (direct object pronoun) please help me

                                                                   Thanks

Answer 1

The 1st sentence sounds like a fragment, not a complete sentence. I say to them (something). The something being the d.o. and the les being the i.o.p.

The second sentence sounds complete in both languages and the person is the d.o. or direct receiver of the verb's action.

I might be instructive to change the tense of the 1st sentence. I told them. That sounds complete to the English ear. Them being a direct object. The Spanish ear hears it as I told them (something) so them is an indirect object. There are many verbs similar to this in Spanish where what the English person would perceive as a direct object, the Spanish person sees as a indirect object. Remember all of the gustar-like intransitive sentences. Where we use the pronoun as a direct object in a transitive sentence (I like him) Spanish uses the pronoun as an i.o.p. in an intransitive sentence. (He is pleasing to me).

Regrettably, it may boil down to learning to recognize whether the i.o.p. or d.o.p. is normally used with certain verbs.

Thanks alot - muhammadhossam, Sep 22, 2010

Answer 2

An indirect object answers for whom? or to whom? and a direct object receives the action of a verb and answers who? or what?

In your first example because you say to them it requires an i.o. pronoun. In the second example who don't you see?-> her so a d.o. pronoun is needed.

Thanks alot for your help - muhammadhossam, Sep 22, 2010