How to decide between direct and indirect object?

Question

I have the assumption that direct objects are acted upon and indirect objects are the destination of the direct object. Most of the time, I see Spanish phrases follow this rule. For example, in "pienso en ti", you are the direct object of my thoughts. However, I can't quite understand why you in "te amo" is an indirect object. "Te amo" means "I love you", not "I love for you". You should be a direct object of my loving.

I have similar confusion about what kind of object I should use for the following:

I trust you

Te confío

Confío en ti

Confío a ti

"I trust you" seems quite similar to "pienso en ti", so I would translate it into a similar fashion. This brings up another question: when do you use "en" versus "a" for the preposition to the direct object?

I'll wait for you

Te espero

Espero a ti

If I were to directly translate "I'll wait for you" into Spanish, then I would use "te espero", because waiting is done to myself and the purpose is for you. However, direct translation does not always lead to the best results.

This is an interesting question and one that I'm really not qualified to answer. But I seem to be missing something, what exactly makes you think that the "te" in "te amo" is an indirect object pronoun? - Manity, Sep 9, 2013

Answer 1

Short answer: The prepositions do not correlate directly to their English counterparts, and thus you will have to memorize them according to each verb.

"Te" can be the direct object pronoun of the indirect object pronoun. In the sentences "Te amo" and "I love you" it is the same construction - subject "I" (implied in Spanish), verb "love" conjugated according to "I" and direct object pronoun "you."

Long answer:

With your second question, you have to realized that the verb "to trust" comes from/alongside the expression "to have trust in" and the Spanish phraseology reflects that. So in this case you would say "Confío en ti" or "I trust/have trust in you."

The phrase "Pienso en ti" will have a bit of confusion simply because the Spanish preposition "en" can mean "in" or "on." If you think of the rather outdated but still technically correct English phrase "I'll think on it" you can see that to think on an object is an appropriate description of the action. Thus "pensar en" your object.

Finally, the verb "esperar" can be viewed as having an implied "for" in the word, as in English we would say "to wait for" something. I think of "esperar" as being similar to the rather outdated verb "to await" such that it implies waiting for something but it takes a direct object instead of an indirect object. I could argue that in English "to wait for" takes a direct object, with the preposition "for" being a part of the verb, but English isn't the grammar that you are concerned with right now.

I hope that my explanation has given you a way to remember these specific phrases' uses.