Understanding Sentence Structure
What does "Le doy una manzana a mi maestra." I do not understand why "le" is used. I know it means I give an apple to my teacher. Why not say "Yo doy. . .
4 Answers
OK, there are two issues here.
First, you essentially are saying Yo, but as you probably know, pronouns are often omitted in Spanish, so ¨Le doy¨ really is saying ¨Yo le doy¨
Second, in Spanish, you must use the le. Unlike in English, it´s not optional.
The ¨a mi maestra¨ portion clarifies, but is not necessary. The ¨le¨ is absolutely required. It is essentially ¨to her¨ In Spanish (it´s just the way they do it) you must use the indirect object pronoun, even if you are explicitly including the actual indirect object itself too. To English speakers, the I.O.P. ¨le¨ may feel redundant, but it is not, to Spanish speakers.
We can say. I give her the apple. Or I give María the apple.
Spanish speakers can say. I give her the apple (Le doy la manzana) Or I give her the apple to María (Le doy la manzana a María)
This apparently sounds perfectly normal to them, and in fact, they require it of one another, and of us. Strange folk, no? But good folk, and they speak Spanish better than us.
For further riveting tales, please refer to.
Buena suerte.
hth roger
"Le" is an indirect personal pronoun which is not translated. It is always used when there is an indirect object noun phrase in this case "a mi,,," and it can replace this phrase but the noun phrase can not replace "le". So it looks like a duplication....but necessary to the spanish way of speaking.
Check out the grammar lesson on indirect object pronouns
Is the following correct?
Nice work! "Te'' is the indirect object pronoun for the 2nd person singular prepositional pronoun "a mi" and it can be placed before the conjugated verb or attached to the infinitive.
Thank you so much!
