Need Spanish homework help!! Indirect Objects..

Question

Hello. I am having a hard time understanding how to do this activity in my homework . It involves indirect object pronouns and I am totally lost!!

Here's a picture of it: http://i50.tinypic.com/2i0vbd.png

THE DIRECTIONS: Ud. es el/la dueño(a) de un restaurante en Guadalajara, México. Escríbale un mensaje a un nuevo empleado explicándole lo que debe hacer para preparar una fiesta grande para la familia Suárez.

Here are the answers I put (They were ALL wrong but for the one with "traer&quot:

preguntar / a los Suárez / lo que quieren comer

->>My WRONG response: Préguntelo a los Suárez que quieren comer.

explicar / al cocinero / lo que va a preparar

->>My WRONG response: Éxpliquelo al cocinero que va a preparar.

escribir / invitaciones / a toda la familia

->>My WRONG response: Éscribale invitaciones a toda la familia.

traer / el vino / al Sr. Suárez

->>My RIGHT response: Tráigale el vino al Sr. Suárez.

enviar / la cuenta / a la Sra. Suárez

->>My WRONG response: Énviele la cuenta a la Sra. Suárez.

I understand the simple way to do indirect objects... like, Te llevo la ensalada a ti. etc.

But, I am very confused by the complexity of this example:

*mostrar / el menú / a los Suárez

Muéstreles el menú a los Suárez.*

This is in imperative tense, and I am commanding someone to show SOMETHING, to SOMEONE ELSE, and I need to add "les" to the end of the verb? I don't understand at all.

Hola Kisatchie, welcome to the forum! - rac1, Oct 3, 2012

Answer 1

Okay.

For a start, when using the imperative tense any object pronouns are always stuck onto the end of the verb. This includes both direct and indirect objects, and if you have to use both, then you use them in this order: indirect object -- direct object.

Tráigala. ----> Bring her. ....................... direct object

Tráigame. -----> Bring (it) to me. ............. indirect object

Trágamela. ------> Bring her to me. ......... both direct and indirect objects

.

preguntar / a los Suárez / lo que quieren comer

explicar / al cocinero / lo que va a preparar

/lo que quieren comer/ means 'what they want to eat.' The 'lo' is indispensable here, because it is the pronoun to which the phrase following it refers. In days long past, English speakers would have said 'that which they want to eat.' The 'lo' roughly corresponds to 'that' in the above sentence. Take it out, and the phrase makes no sense!

So here your mistake was in seeing the 'lo' as a direct object, rather than the indefinite pronoun it is, and then in using a direct object as an indirect object.

Pregúnteloles a los Suárez lo que quieren comer.

Pregúnteles a los Suárez lo que quieren comer.

Explíquelole al cocinero lo que va a preparar.

Explíquele al cocinero lo que va a preparar.

.

Thirdly, in most of your verbs you put the accent in the wrong places. Remember that the accent is there to keep the cadence of a verb the same, even when it has other syllables added to it.

'Ex-pli-que' is how you would say the imperative conjugation of 'explicar' without anything on the end of it.

Adding an object pronoun, the cadence would change to 'ex-pli-que-les' - because the stress is always on the second last syllable (as a rule). In order to prevent this, an accent is placed above the syllable -pli- to keep the cadence the same.

explíqueles

.

Doing this would correct your last exercise.

Envíele la cuenta a la Sra. Suárez.

.

I hope I haven't just confused you more! My grammar is a little rusty.

And welcome to the forum! :D

Answer 2

Hey,

It looks like on most of your answers you used the direct object "lo" instead of the indirect object "le/les". Remember that indirect objects generally come in two parts: a "le" which is then reinforced by a "a persona" For example, you could say "pregúntale a antonio". Le refers to the direct object, Antonio. So in the example at the bottom "muéstreles el menu a los Suárez, the "les" is needed to refer to "los suarez"

With regards to accents, if a word ends in a voul, n or s, the natural stress falls on the second to last syllable. For example "pregunte". Here the accent falls on the u. When you add the direct object "pregúntale" the accent now falls on the last "a" instead of the original u, so you must add an accent to keep the original stress of the word. If the word ends in a constant that is not n or s, the natural stress falls on the last syllable. So, you would say "envíele" not "énviele". This one is tricky because of the dipthong