Indirect and direct object pronoun usage

Question

¡Hola! ¿Puede alguien corregir estas frases? Estoy confundida sobre el uso de los complementos directos e indirectos.

Maria ignored the dog because her father said it was the best thing to do. María le ignoró al perro porque su padre dijo que fue lo mejor para hacer.

The smart teacher convinced her.

La maestra inteligente la convenció.

My mother never cooked the chicken and never fed Jorge. Mi madre nunca cocinó el pollo y nunca le alimentó a Jorge.

Muchas gracias

Pobre Jorge. - Tosh, Sep 17, 2011

Jajaja, sí, no comida para Jorge - SonrisaDelSol, Sep 17, 2011

Answer 1

María (no indirect/direct pronoun) ignoró al perro porque su padre dijo que fue lo mejor que hacer.

The more common use for ignorar is "to not be aware", and ignorar apparently acquired this other meaning (to ignore) due to the influence of English, making "ignorar = to ignore" acceptable. Nevertheless, I'd prefer the other (more common as well, I believe) options, like "no hacer caso (de)" and "hacer caso omiso (de)".

Also, with María ignoró al perro, the personal and not the preposition a is used, and perro is the direct object, so adding either lo or le would be incorrect. "Al perro lo ignoró María" would be correct, though, but it is a different construction.

La maestra inteligente la convenció.

Correct!

Mi madre nunca cocinó el pollo y nunca le alimentó a Jorge.

Correct! (I prefer "dar de comer" over alimentar, but I think choosing one over the other is a matter of choice.)

Muchas gracias, Deanski!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - SonrisaDelSol, Sep 18, 2011

Answer 2

Hi Sonrisa,

There was a thread a while ago about the use of the anticipatory (redundant) indirect pronoun, to which Galsally the Morris Dancer and Gfreed the scholar gave some great replies. Check it out!

IO and more

Hmm, the thing is, there is no indirect object in the 1st sentence.. The 3rd one, yes, the use of le is falls into that redundant use of le. - Deanski, Sep 18, 2011

Yes, and SR was asking about the use of IO and DO. Your point? - Jeremias, Sep 18, 2011

I just thought that thread will be useful only for understanding the 3rd sentence, and you could have expanded your answer so that all 3 sentences are addressed, or specified that the thread would apply only to the 3rd sentence. - Deanski, Sep 18, 2011

Very helpful, J! Thanks so much! - SonrisaDelSol, Sep 18, 2011

Answer 3

Bump...

Sorry I can't help you, I translated them the same way...I'll be watching though! - MLucie, Sep 17, 2011

No problem at all, Lucie :) I'm glad to know that you agree, though! - SonrisaDelSol, Sep 17, 2011