Please, explain the pronoun usage in the following sentence
Why do you translate the following sentence:
What did you tell her? ¿Qué le dijiste a ella? but no: ¿Qué dijiste a ella?
What is the function of le here? Many thanks in advance!!!
3 Answers
This is what I learned...In this case, "le" is an indirect object pronoun. The "a ella" is there to clarify who "le" is...it may be her, or may be him...you don't know for sure unless you have that "a ella".
Any native speakers who want to correct that?
The function of that "le" is to inform native speakers that you are not about to make an unusually weird construction, and whatever you say, it will be clarified later in the sentence (i.e. "a ella"). Omit it, and all natives will be confused most of the time.
Do you think it is weird? Then tell me why do you need an "it" in "I like it when you do that", because in Spanish you can't say "it" in this case.
This article on redundant object pronouns may help to show the construction. The construction is one that English speakers don't easily recognize, even though we may use it, as Lazarus points out.
