How do I know whether to use "le" or "la" with "ayudar" in these examples?

Question

I learned the following phrase from my Rosetta Stone course:

"Los niños les ayudan a sus abuelos."

I think I understand that "les" is used in this sentence to signify that "abuelos" are receiving the action from the verb "ayudar".

Then, I ran across this phrase in a children's book.

"'¿Qué podemos hacer para que vuelvas a tu casa?', le preguntó Milo con ganas de ayudarla."

What I don't understand is why in this sentence the verb "ayudar" is followed by "la" rather than "le".

Thanks in advance for your help!

Good and fair question. - rogspax, Mar 21, 2013

Answer 1

Just a note: In the first sentence you don't need to use "les" cause it is to refer the indirect object which is "a los abuelos" (it is easy to see cause you have preposition "a"). So it would be better to say: -Los niños ayudan a sus abuelos. (You don't need "les") -Los niños les ayudan. (You use "les" to refer "a los abuelos" just if it doesn't appear in the sentence because it appeared before)

For the second sentence I would say that "preguntar" and "ayudar" both are transitive verbs but preguntar is to make a question so direct object is already there and you need an indirect object so you use "le" if you use "lo" would be direct object so it is about the thing you are asking about but not the persone who you are asking to. (Sorry I can't explain it better T-T). Then for ayudar you can use both (le/la/lo) so you can say "ayudarle" (man/woman), "ayudarla" (woman) or "ayudarlo" (man). Just ayudarla is more direct and it makes you think about a girl.

Sorry 'cause I'm Spanish and for me it is just something natural. I can't really explain it ^-^''

Bienvenida y gracias por tu aporte. =) - -cae-, Mar 21, 2013

Answer 2

OK, the first one you understand correctly, kudos.

The second one, there is a ´le´ in front of the second clause, referring to whoever is being asked, just as the les did the same in your first example. In the second example, the la is referring to some singular feminine person who is going to be helped.

If you remember a bit of English grammar, those le and les words are indirect object pronouns, for which we say whom. The la is a direct object pronoun.

To recap, note that your second example has both a la and a le. The le refers to the person being asked, and the la to the person being helped.

Clear as mud?

Dos preguntas: ¿ que significa " kudos " y " le preguntó Milo con ganas de ayudarla." - britisk, Mar 21, 2013

Kudos is a bit slang maybe, but is a plural noun used to offer congratulations or praise for a job well done. The second question I didn´t understand - rogspax, Mar 21, 2013