Function of "le" in this sentence

Question

limpiar. 'limpiar'. This verb means 'to clean'. For example, 'le limpian los labios con las servilletas' / 'They clean their lips with the napkins'. Limpiar.

Why is there "le" before limpian?

This is from the video translation for the verb limpiar.

I think it's a mistake le can never refer the them - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

Answer 1

"le" before a verb is used you do something to a third person.

e.g

I wash my hands.

"Me lavo las manos." Because I washing MY hands.

But if I wash the hands of somebody else;

I wash his/her hands.

"Le lavo las manos."

That makes sense. They clean his lips, not their own lips. Good on you ale_rd. - jeezzle, Oct 13, 2011

You're welcome! - ale_rd, Oct 13, 2011

Wait, does "you're welcome" make sense here? haha - ale_rd, Oct 13, 2011

ja ja well done for picking that up, you're welcome after thanx, thanx after praise jeje - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

Sure, that works well enough, "good on you" is pretty colloquial, but it's probably more like - "you rock!" - jeezzle, Oct 13, 2011

You would say, "Thanks" after Jeezle's comment as he is giving you a compliment. Good on you = (algo como) good job, well done, etcetera. - webdunce, Oct 13, 2011

But watch the video he links to. Hear her Spanish and her English...it's confusing to me...I would expect "leS limpian los labios." - webdunce, Oct 13, 2011

OK, veo que en otros comentarios dices que tú dirias "SE limpian los labios"...ahora creo que sería así...y ni con "le" ni con "les." - webdunce, Oct 14, 2011

Gracias, ale_rd! - SonrisaDelSol, Oct 14, 2011

Answer 2

Ellos le limpian los labios a él con las servilletas.

Los labios = direct object

A él ----> indirect object ----> le = indirect object pronoun.

EDIT:

Eddy said:

Am I missing something here?

The translation is they clean their lips with the napkins, not his or hers. Shouldn't the video be saying,

Los limpian los labios con las servilletas

They clean their (own) lips with napkins:

(Ellos) se limpian los labios (a sí mismos) con las servilletas. Reflexive construction

They clean their (a different group of people) lips with napkins:

Ellos les limpian los labios (a ellas) con las servilletas. Transitive construction with both direct and indirect objects.)

Nice post Elmar, welcome to the forum :) - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

Gracias, Elmar! - SonrisaDelSol, Oct 14, 2011

Answer 3

Ok I remember! The trick is that technically there's no indirect object pronoun 'se'

they are:

me, te, le, nos, os, les

unless! ...... the IOP's le or les precedes the DOP's la/lo/los or las

Se los limpian.

I think I ought to learn these things to can explain them more easily - ale_rd, Oct 13, 2011

je je yes that's why I like to learn the grammar terms because often people do want explanations - not that it helps you speak Spanish at all lol - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

but you did a good job as it was :) - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

Gracias, Kiwi :) - SonrisaDelSol, Oct 14, 2011

Answer 4

Actually, I would say les there. Not le. But I'm not a native.

However, I wonder if she, the speaker, has a slight accento de Cuba o de Puerto Rico. I say this because she also did not pronounce the final "s" in servilletas. So it could be she said "le" but it should still be written "les." (Some accents will drop some final 's' sounds like that).

I think you're on to it, I have a Venezuelan friend who does that all the time. - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

Nah your not onto it unless you mean "their" lips not his lips. - jeezzle, Oct 13, 2011

Jeezle, the English translation is given as "They clean their lips with the napkins." - webdunce, Oct 14, 2011

And, his lips or her lips is exactly how I understand the sentence with "le" (and I first visualized a bunch of servants all wiping some guy's lips), but "their lips" is apparently the intention. - webdunce, Oct 14, 2011

But, reading ale_rd's comments, I see that he (a native) would say "se limpian los labios" for people who are cleaning their own lips, which makes me wonder about the speaker in the video...is it two ways of saying the same thing??? - webdunce, Oct 14, 2011

Thanks for the help, Webdunce! - SonrisaDelSol, Oct 14, 2011

Answer 5

Am I missing something here?

The translation is they clean their lips with the napkins, not his or hers. Shouldn't the video be saying,

Los Se limpian los labios con las servilletas.

Edit:

Ok I was wrong to use a direct object but the translation on the video clip is now incorrect. Shouldn't it say "They clean his/her lips with the napkins".

some times we're all so busy sweating the details we miss the big one :) - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

"los" at the beginning it's an object, so if you say "los limpian los labios", you'd be using two direct objects, "Los..." and "los labios". - ale_rd, Oct 13, 2011

but shouldn't it be 'se'? - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

Both, it depends on the context. "Se limpian los labios con la servilleta."= "They clean their own lips with the napkins"., and "Le limpian los labios con la servilleta"="They clean the lips of somebody else with the napkins." - ale_rd, Oct 13, 2011

couldn't you say se limpian los labios de ellos? - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

No, you couldn't. Because when you say "se", it's already clear that you're talking about they own lips. It's like, "me lavo las manos", you don't say "me lavo las manos mías", because it sounds repetitive. - ale_rd, Oct 13, 2011

their own lips*** 'se' and 'me' are like posesives - ale_rd, Oct 13, 2011

oh yeah, I could use it for each other though coudn't I - se limpian al uno al otro - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

the worst thing is that I know this, I just haven't been using it - stinker, still thanx for the help - this kind of thread really helps to cement this stuff into my brain lol - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

Yes you can, se limpian El uno al otro is correct, but this is a kind different from the previous sentence :) - ale_rd, Oct 13, 2011

You're welcome ^^ . It happens to me the same, it's really easy to forget things when you don't use them - ale_rd, Oct 13, 2011

quite right and I remember now where the confusions comes in, I've posted below but basically it's because there's no IOP se unless it precedes the direct objects lo/a/s - lightbulb! Thanks for your patience :) - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

Don't mention it :) - ale_rd, Oct 13, 2011

Thanks, Eddy - SonrisaDelSol, Oct 14, 2011

Answer 6

Fascinating. Seems to me "'se limpian los labios con las servilletas" but it says le and she even says le. Good question.

that's what I was thinking. - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

darn it, just when i was thinking I had those objects sorted lol - Spanish is definitely a case of the more I learn the less I know sometimes je je - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

the worst thing is I have learnt this and I do know it I just haven't used it so it's not cemented in properly - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

se is not an indirect object pronoun so with them being the indirect object (the lips are the direct object) it would have to be les - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

Yeah I guess it's a question of what you think they were saying. ;) - jeezzle, Oct 13, 2011

true that! - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

Exactly what I was thinking, Jeezzle - SonrisaDelSol, Oct 14, 2011

Answer 7

Because limpiarse is "to clean oneself", and needs the indirect object pronoun to indicate that they clean their own lips.

It's probably leismo. - pesta, Oct 13, 2011

but it's just a straight old an indirect object pronoun (dop's are lo but iops are le) so it's not leísmo is it - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 13, 2011

Gracias, Pesta! - SonrisaDelSol, Oct 14, 2011