"Le" versus "Se"

Question

What is the difference between se and le and what are they used for?? Que es la diferencia enfrente de se y le y cuando los usa?

Answer 1

Le is used as the indirect object pronoun. It references to whom you are doing an action.

Dale el libro = Give the book to him! Who is getting the book? He is, so we use le. We also use le while the indirect object is stated:

Lanzale el disco a mi hermano = Throw the Frisbee to my brother. Who is getting the Frisbee? My brother is. Note how we use "le" even though the indirect object is stated (my Brother).

Se has a bunch of meaning. The two that are pertinent to your question are 1) Its use in reflexive verbs and 2) When we use both object pronouns.

1) Reflexive Verbs. There is a class of verbs that are called Reflexive (or at least that's what I call them. I think there's a proper grammar name for them, but it escapes me at the moment). Ducharse (To shower) is one of them. You use se when you conjugate these verbs.

Se ducha cada día = He showers daily.

Se despertó = He woke up.

2) When we use object pronouns together. When you use both "le / les" and "lo/la/los/las", it gets really hard to pronounce the words.

"Le lo di"? I think not. So, we change the "le/les" to "se"

"Se lo di" (I gave it to him)? Much better!

Look here or here or even here if you're still confused.

Nice post :) - Kiwi-Girl, Dec 20, 2012

ps I think you were thinking of the term pronominal verbs ;) - Kiwi-Girl, Dec 20, 2012

Answer 2

Do you cringe and have a brain freeze when someone starts to explain grammar using words like 'direct object pronouns' and 'indirect object pronouns'?

Then I hope that this lesson might help - Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns - an introduction

Yeah, they can be a bit confusing. But they're not too hard to understand if you read up on it. - HackerKing, Dec 20, 2012