Understanding uses of "le"

Question

I know "le" is an indirect object pronoun which translates to him or her in english.

I am confused when I've heard or seen it used in other sentences.

Some examples:

1) a lyric from Shakira "es normal que le temas a lo que no conoces"

does the "le" here refer to "a lo que" ?

2) after eating a delicious soup someone said "le quedo rica"

Here I want to translate le to mean "it"

Can someone please help me to understand how and when "le" is used. I understand le as an indirect object pronoun such as in the sentence "Juan le compro un regalo" which means "Juan bought her a gift". It seems there is something else to understand about "le".

Answer 1

I can only offer you my two cents....

The rules for how frequently "le" is used can vary. Some books and scholars say that to be grammatically correct, you should always use "le" when talking about doing something to another person, whether or not you clarify elsewhere in the sentence who the person is (like "al hombre"). These people would argue that the second example you gave should have included the "le" and been written: "La mujer le peina el pelo al hombre." If you want to err on the side of caution and be as grammatically correct as possible, then I would say to follow that rule. If you add in the "le", it's not certainly not incorrect.

Many people, especially when speaking informally, believe that if you use a clarification telling the person (again like "al hombre", "a Marta", "para Julio", etc.) you don't need the "le", rather it's optional. So they would argue that in the first example you gave it would also be acceptable to say "La mujer cepilla el pelo al hombre.

For the Spanishdict source of the use of 'le' please go to this URL:

http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/100017/indirect-object-pronouns

I thank you for taking time to respond and for the link. - michellech, Nov 20, 2010

It seems that it depends with whom you're talking, whether or not to use le. - michellech, Nov 20, 2010

No problem....It's a shame I can't help you out more though... - Seb79, Nov 20, 2010

Answer 2

Creo que este se refiere a "la reduplicación del objeto indirecto" ¿?

Gracias por la respuesta. Eso es lo que pensaba con respecto al primer ejemplo, pero no estoy segura del segundo. - michellech, Nov 20, 2010

Answer 3

If you fancy some practice to familiarize yourself with direct and indirect objects we have a game going on here G A M E Direct and Indirect Objects

Thank you! I will certainly take a look. - michellech, Nov 20, 2010

Answer 4

I realize this is old, but I just recently had a lightbulb moment about the soup part. The ''le'' in that sentence was referring to the cook. Something like ''She made a delicious soup'' in English but literally translated something like ''the soup resulted delicious for her.''

Agreed the soup is the DO and it is implied just like "acabo de decirle" the thing you said is the implied DO but I still dont get "le temas" unless the thing you fear is the DO and I bet it is. Then that would make sense. - jeezzle, Oct 8, 2011

For that example someone once suggested to me maybe that's just the way that verb ''temer'' works which like you said, the thing you fear is the DO. That example originally tripped me up because I thought le was only used for him/her. oops! - michellech, Oct 8, 2011