Subjunctive sentence structure

Question

Why in this sentence is the direct object pronoun in there?

Sus padres no la dejan que salga co sus amigos

I understand it if you said it like....." Sus padres no la dejan salir con sus amigos"

Could someone please explaine this to me?

As for me, I have another question: Why they don't write: Sus padres no le dejan que salga con sus amigos? Could some one give me the answer? - baonguyen5515, Jan 2, 2013

Answer 1

Dejar can be followed by the indicative or by 'que' + the subjunctive. Like you I would lean towards the indicative for that sentence as you are just reporting information.

The direct object is there because when dejar means 'to let' as in 'to consent to', to permit' etc it is used transitively and a transitive verb is one that requires one or more objects.

Answer 2

As for me, I have another question: Why they don't write: Sus padres no le dejan que salga con sus amigos? Could some one give me the answer? - baonguyen551

Because 'la' is a direct object pronoun - they don't let 'her' (her/la) ......

But 'le' is an indirect object pronoun which wouldn't be gramatically correct and could sound like a bit like the English 'they don't let 'to' her go out with her friends.'

Having said that, although it isn't gramatically correct, 'le' is often used by native speakers to replace 'lo' (the masculine singular direct object (him)) - it's so common in fact that there's a word for it - it's called leísmo.

So you may see - No le dejan salir ... They don't let 'him' go out ....

I just wanted to add that leísmo goes beyond lo. It can be used in cases such as the one presented, where la is replaced by le. It's quite common to hear Sus padres no le dejan que salga. - francobollo, Jan 2, 2013

good to know, thanks Franco :) - Kiwi-Girl, Jan 2, 2013

Answer 3

Good question, I don´t quite get it either, but do note that in all the examples here (entry 8 under ´dejar´ where dejar is let or allow, they do the same thing, Use an object pronoun.

I´d like to hear more about this too.

Thanks for posting it.