les or los as the direct object here.

Question

I was reading some Spanish text and found this: "sí, solía invitarles." I take it to mean "yes, I usually invite them. But I think they have used "les" for the plural direct object which is not what I understand is the recommended choice for Spanish in this hemisphere. Should it be "si, solía invitarlos"?

Answer 1

Must admit - but im probably wrong here - I thought 'los' as the 3rd person plural object pronoun meant 'men or men and women'.

Perhaps the sentence has something to do with the leísmo thing of some natives using le \ les for both object and indirect object pronouns.

Exacto. Los can be neuter, that is, it also pertains to a group of men & women, and is the default plural direct object pronoun if the gender of the objects is unknown. - Deanski, Apr 5, 2011

:) thankyou! perhaps all the time ive been spending on here is paying off lol - billygoat, Apr 5, 2011

Answer 2

But I think they have used "les" for the plural direct object which is not what I understand is the recommended choice for Spanish in this hemisphere.

This hemisphere?? The recommendation goes for both hemispheres, as far as I can know. Actually, in the southern hemisphere there seems to be a tendency opposite to that of "leísmo".

Anyway, the RAE recommends "los" or "las" in this case, as it is a direct object, but many natives will be saying "les" for different reasons, one of which is the fact that colloquially some people use this verb with two objects ("invitarles algo"), thus justifying the use of "les".

I don´t get the hemisphere comment either but I can say that due to the "Coriolis Effect," flushing the toilet in the north hemisphere will make the water spin counter clock-wise and vice versa in the south hemisphere :- ) - 005faa61, Apr 5, 2011

Well, yes, not the clearest choice of words, but still, a minimum of them to avoid a detailed discussion of leismo. How would you have said it? - Otravez, Apr 5, 2011

Are there not also an eastern and western hemisphere in the descriptions of world geography? - Otravez, Apr 5, 2011

Yes, but the terms don´t seem to be as popular as the north/south hemisphere terms, plus direction in submarine races will be unaffected by east/west hemispheres - 005faa61, Apr 5, 2011

Answer 3

"Sí, solía invitarles" "Yes, I used to invite them."

"Les" could be men or men and women combined. "Los" would be men only. "Las" would women only.

No argument that some use "le and les" for direct objects. But, have we not been "taught" that leísmo is not the "recommended" RAE choice? - Otravez, Apr 5, 2011