Is it "mucho gusto en conocerles" or "concocerlas"
" pleased to meet you" or "pleased to make your aquaintance"
Speaking, or writing actually, to two ladies who a mutual friend has introduced by email. I am still thoroughly confused as to when to use "lo, le, la" or "los, les, las" Is this to do with subject/object? I thought if I immersed myself in the language learning it would somehow become apparent to me. Can someone be so kind as to explain this gramatical point to me or to direct me to somewhere I can learn about this.
I'm sure that if I spoke better English I would be able to speak better Spanish!
4 Answers
I have a feeling you will come across both - mucho gusto en conocerlas in America which is gramatically correct but I think as a case of leísmo you'll hear conocerles in Spain, which is also well accepted. 
This is a little different than the leísmo we normally associate with Spain. This leísmo is more widespread.
Leísmo de cortesía
Se define como leísmo de cortesía al uso de le, les en vez de las formas lo, la, los, las para la segunda persona de cortesía del singular (usted), o segunda persona de cortesía en plural, segunda persona del plural (ustedes), ejemplo: ¿En qué puedo atenderle, señor?. Se puede llegar a considerar un mecanismo intrínseco de la lengua para evitar confusiones entre la segunda y la tercera persona en frases como. Le acompaño (a usted) al sitio donde va a esperarla (a ella).
Por eso no sólo se restringe a las áreas tradicionalmente leístas en dialectología (centro de España, Ecuador, algunas zonas andinas en otros países), sino que se extiende a todas y es frecuente su empleo con verbos con los que se establecen relaciones de autoridad, en especial si son de los llamados verbos de cambio de régimen (como ayudar u obedecer) verbos que han cambiado o están cambiando el complemento indirecto por el complemento directo u otros en los que a veces hay dudas en el empleo de estos pronombres (verbos de afección psíquica, etc).
Marmaid,
Since you aren't familiar with the léismo: using the indirect object pronouns ( le, les) where a direct object pronoun (lo, la, las, los) would normally be expected), let me explain what my citation is about.
This explains that the leísmo of courtesy is used to avoid mistaking usted or ustedes for he or she when you have a sentence containing direct object pronouns that refer to both 2nd person (usted) and 3rd person (he/she).
In the example given:
Le acompaño (a usted) al sitio donde va a esperarla (a ella).
One la would refer to usted and the other la would refers to ella and the antecedents are ambiguous. To let you know that one la is used for usted, it is replaced with le.
This would apply to your context of conocerles. If it were concerlas then the las could be either them or you. The leísmo de cortesía tells you that the les refers to ustedes not ellas. Glad to meet you (plural). Not Glad to meet them.
I agree with Kiwi_Girl. Both are acceptable. Depending on the area, one might be preferred over the other, but I'm pretty sure you don't have to worry about being teased or offending anyone. I think conocerlas is probably more logical (and follows the "rules"), but I like conocerles because it seems to roll off the tongue a little easier IMO. Here's a link talking about Leísmo. I don't know if it'll help, but there's plenty of information about it on the internet. Just do a google search.
Thank you KiwiGirl, No wonder they both sound all right to me. Butwhat is leismo.
It's just when the direct object lo is replaced with le which is normally the indirect object pronoun. It is accepted and is used to refer to a singular masculine person (but not a thing).
You will also sometimes see 'les' used as the direct object when referring to multiple persons. It's not quite as common but you will see it as in your example.
This article will give you an overview, especially the second page Leísmo
