confusion with object pronouns
Carmela siempre se porta como si nada le preocupara.
Carmela always acts as though nothing bothered her.
I am confused. I believe preocupar above is a transitive verb. So, what is the direct object?
4 Answers
"Preocupar" belongs to a group of verbs called "affeción psíquica", where something or someone causes some emotional or psychological effect on people. As a general guideline, the indirect "le/s" is often used if the effect is not intentional, and the direct "lo/la/los/las" when it is (for this, you need a sentient grammatical subject), but there are regional preferences towards one usage over the other with different verbs.
In this case, "nothing bothers her", and since "nothing" is not intentionally bothering her, "le/s" is more likely to be used here. However, the use of "le/s" is by far the most common one for most speakers, whether it is intentional or not. With other verbs, the preference can be the opposite. "Nada la preocupa" is definitely correct, but many native speakers are likely to find it somewhat weird, if not wrong.
The phrase "como si" is used for hypothetical scenarios that can't be declared as something you think it is true, so it only takes subjunctive.
Ah just like 'favorecer', I should have remembered that. But, Laz, why is the imperfect subjunctive used here, wouldn't the present subjunctive be more appropriate?
On the contrary: present subjunctive (like the indicative one) mentions things that could become true, without declaring them; thus, it may refer to present of future real events. Imperfect subjunctive conjures mental scenarios (like indicative), without declaring them, i.e. hypothetical events that probably never existed or will never exist.
Hola mate,
I believe it's an acceptable case of 'Leísmo'.
Edit:
The other possible explanation is that the verb 'preocupar' can act as one of gustar's gangsters.
I give up. Let's all take up Russian. ?????. ??? ????? ???????. ??? ?? ????
