Unnecessary indirect objects..
Hello everyone! I had this sentence in a short story:
Su extraordinario coraje la salvó a ella y salvó a sus pequeñuelos.
My question is: Why there are "a ella" and "a sus" when there's not supposed to be an indirect object? There's already "Su extraordinario coraje la salvó" - Her courage saved her (direct object - la). So why there's also indirect objects?
Thanks!
5 Answers
HI Kobi, this is a direct object.
La salvó. He saved her.
The a ella is used for emphasis as we are mentioning two different direct objects here.
she was saved and her kids
The only unnecessary word here - although not gramatically incorrect - is the second "salvó."
Su extraordinario coraje la salvó a ella y salvó a sus pequeñuelos.
My question is: Why there are "a ella" and "a sus" when there's not supposed to be an indirect object?
"Su extraordinario coraje salvó..." sounds a bit strange unless it is followed by a direct object... other than "a ella". The fact that Spanish allows different word orders which are not possible in English, implies that certain rules have to be followed in order to avoid misinterpretations. In Spanish you can't say "a él/ella/ellos/ellas" without "le(s)" or "lo/la/los/las", because these sequences with "a él..." are only for contrasts, as in "ella vs sus pequeñuelos".
"A ella" can only be used if there is a "le/la/..." along with it, but it is compulsory with contras like "ella vs sus pequeñuelos". Change or omit things, and the sentence will sound confusing, and most likely, also incomplete.
Kenful21 - the courage is hers. That courage of her saved her and her offsprings..
There isn't enough context to determine exactly who the sentence refers to. The best I can make of it is that "someone" had courage which saved "her" and "someone's" kids(?) With no clarification, I assume the person in the main clause is one and the same, and that the kids saved also belong to her. "Su" is the short third person, singular, possessive adjective (the corresponding long one is suyo/suya) and could be meaning your, his, or her, unless specifically clarified by relevant context. Sometimes, because of lack of sufficient context, we have to guess at the more exact meaning of what is there. The "la" in this sentence is the feminine direct object of "salvó" and tells us that the person is female. Grammatically, "a ella" is not required, but it focuses a bit more on a specific person than does the "la." which is the unstressed form of the pronoun. We make it more focused if we add "a ella" which is the stressed form. If I wanted to be even more specific I would write it as : El coraje de María la salvó y también sus pequeños.
