about indirect pronouns
I am now learning direct and indirect pronouns.
I saw two different sentences. 1) Yo compro una blusa a mi mamá. 2) Yo les compro los abrigos a mis padres.
Does the first sentence can be also described as Yo le compro una blusa a mi mama like second sentence?
I don’t understand why second sentence uses indirect pronoun (les= a mis padres) but first sentence doesn’t. Is it depends on situation?
4 Answers
"Yo compro una blusa a mi mamá" sounds very unusual. I would have said "Yo le compro..."
According to the rules used in our Reference library, anytime that there is an indirect object in the sentence a indirect object pronoun must be used.
So, yes, the first sentence should also contain a le just as the second one does.
The confusion arises with the use of para.
Yo compro una blusa para mi mamá.
Whether you use an indirect object pronoun depends on the meaning of the sentence. If mamá is the recipient of the blouse then you use an i.o.p. If the sentence means you bought the blouse "for" your mother as a favor for her (to save her from having to make the trip to the store) to give to someone else then no i.o.p. is required as she is not the recipient of the direct object. And even this understanding of para is not universally accepted.
[official rules](http://buscon.rae.es/dpdI/SrvltConsulta?lema=pronombres personales atonos)
the first should probabnly be "yo compro una blusa para mi mamá" I like para better there.
otherwise I would have said "yo le compro una blusa a mi mamá"
the difference is in the first one I am saying
I am buying a blouse for my mother.
in the second, "I am buying her a blouse (for my mother)" in Spanish we can say biothe the 'for her' and the 'for my mother' in the same sentence to clarify who the 'her' is.
In the second sentence "I am buying them coats (for my parents)"
