Is this an indirect object pronoun?

Question

Hi

While watching the wonderful lectures,

I came across this phrase "¿Pudes prestarme un lápiz?".

Here, I don't really get why there is 'me' right after 'prestar'.

If it were a i.o.p meaning 'to me', shouldn't it precede 'Puedes' and become "¿Me pudes prestar un lápiz?"?

I'm a beginner learning this awesome language, so I'm thinking there are some parts that I'm missing out.:(

Could anyone help me out??

P.S. If I were to translate 'Could anyone help me out?', would it be '¿Me puede ayudar alguien?' or something like '¿Alguien puede ayudarme?'

Sorry for the whole bunch of questions......

Answer 1

In Spanish with a question like this you have the option to place the pronoun before the conjugated verb or attach it to the infinitive, so ¿Puedes prestarme un lápiz? y ¿Me puedes prestar un lápiz? are equivalent. You can use either ¿Alguien me puede ayudar? or ¿Alguien puede ayudarme?. Furthermore, if you want to be even more polite you can replace "puede" with the conditional tense "podría". If you want to be super polite you can replace "puede" with the imperfect subjunctive "pusiera" or "pusiese".

¡Espero que te sirva!

Nice explanation! - Noetol, Apr 20, 2012

Thank you Sooooooo much!! It sure helped me a lot!!! - espyeuja, Apr 23, 2012