Les favoreció la suerte
The dictionary gives this example for the verb 'favorecer'
Les favoreció la suerte ---> luck was on their side or literally 'luck favored them'.
My question is, why the indirect object is used here, what's the direct object then?
Shouldn't the direct object be used here and the sentence read like...
'Los/ las favoreció la suerte'.
Thanks.
3 Answers
Les favoreció la suerte ---> luck was on their side or literally 'luck favored them'.
This verb required an indirect object in Latin and people continue to do so, but like many other verbs of affection like this, there has been a tendency to use direct object when someone voluntarily performs the action on others:
Juan siempre favorecía a los más necesitados -> Juan los favorecía
However, when it is involuntary, the verb can behave like in "gustar", where the person indicated by the indirect object is affected even though the grammatical subject does not do it on purpose. After all, in "La cerveza me gusta", the beer is not trying to please me, and neither is luck:
La suerte le favorecía
With this particular verb, the main tendency seems to be the use of the transitive construction regardless of the considerations mentioned above, but the preferences of usage vary from one country to another. The RAE consideres both correct.
In pronominal constructions it is intransitive and it requires the preposition "de":
Se favorece de su influencia política.
There is the pronominal form of favorecer:
From http://es.thefreedictionary.com/favorecer
v pr favorecerse [fa?o?e'?e?se] sacar un beneficio de algo
Se favoreció de la subida de los precios.
Does this explain the use of i.o. "les" ?
Don't we have the same situation with "gustar"?
Me gusta la manzana - subject is manzana, indirect object is me. Where's the direct object?
According to the dictionary here, gustar is an intransitive verb in this usage, which means it cannot have a direct object!
Edit:
Favorecer is listed as a transitive verb, so it's not really the same as gustar.
