Reflexive pronoun, direct object pronoun or an indirect object pronoun?
Dear all,
I started learning Spanish 3 months ago.
I am now learning reflexive verbs and pronouns, direct object pronouns and indirect object pronouns. I understand the rules to use the aforementioned pronouns.
I have a question that my Spanish teacher can't answer me well.
How do I know for example if the pronoun 'me' in the following sentence is a reflexive pronoun or an indirect object pronoun? I think each of these 2 pronouns can be correct.
'Me quiero comprar una ropa'.
The 'me' in aforementioned sentence can be a a reflexive pronoun or an indirect object pronoun. But how do i know which one it is?
5 Answers
Dear all,
First of all. Thank you guys for the answers!
To be honest, I am a bit confused now. I now get 2 different answers to my question. Both answers seem logical. In practice, I also get different answers. At school, on the Internet and even my teacher can't explain it clear to me. Although some answers seem more logical than others.
My teacher have taught me that the verb 'comprar' can also be reflexive. To buy something for yourself. So the answer of bosquederoble seems logical. But the answer of JulianChivi also seems very logical. A verb is only reflexive when the subject and direct object are the same. I still wonder whether the pronoun 'me' in the sentence 'Me quiero comprar una ropa' is a reflexive pronoun or an indirect object pronoun.
My teacher explained the following sentences to me as follow.
'Me han robodo': the pronoun 'me' is a direct object pronoun. Who or what has been robbed? 'Me' is the answer. Is it correct that the pronoun 'me' is a direct object pronoun in this sentence?
'Me han robodo mi cartera': the pronoun 'me' is an indirect object pronoun, because I have been the one who has been affected by the action 'han robado'. Is is correct that the pronoun 'me' in this sentence is an indirect object pronoun? If this is the case then it still seems weird to me. I always use the question 'to whom or for whom' to find the indirect object. The question ''To or for whom has been robbed?' sounds very weird. It seems that this question can't be answered at all, because the grammatical question seems incorrect. If the pronoun 'me' is an indirect object pronoun, then I could also use the following sentence 'Me la han robado (mi cartera)'. Is this correct?
Or could the pronoun 'me' 'in the sentence 'Me han robodo mi cartera' be a direct object pronoun? After all, to find the direct object I always use the question 'Whom or what is receiving the action?' In this case it would be 'me' (they have robbed me from my wallet). I received the action of 'have been robbed' and therefore the pronoun 'me' could be defined as a direct object pronoun.
I find these Spanish grammar subjects on pronouns (reflexive, direct and indirect objects) very difficult. It hinders my Spanish learning process lately. I put a lot of effort in finding the answers.
I hope you guys can help me on aforementioned questions 
Greet!
Dear Bosquederoble,
Thank you so much for your superb explanation! This helps me a lot to understand the logic behind the Spanish pronouns. I've spent a lot of hours on the Internet to find the answer to my aforementioned question. But every time I find the same information about the basic use of Spanish pronouns. How to know which pronoun is being used in a sentence? Even my Spanish teacher had a hard time trying to explain it to me. Especially reflexive pronouns or an indirect object pronouns.
Once again many thanks for your reply
'Me quiero comprar una ropa'.
Rather than "una ropa" we say ropa without article. To emphasize a single piece of clothing, we say una prenda (de ropa) and of course prenda can be used in plural as well.
A pronoun is only reflexive when used with a reflexive verb, and a verb is only reflexive when the subject and direct object are the same. In your example yo is the subject and ropa is the direct object. The indirect object is me, so there is nothing reflexive in your sentence. Me simply indicates who is affected by the action.
Me voy a bañar - the subject yo and direct object yo conjugated to me are the same. This is reflexive, some people call reflexive "doing something to ones self" although grammarians don´t prefer to use this terminology.
Te voy a bañar - If you´re a pretty girl, this is much less boring than my bathing myself because now the subject yo and direct object tú conjugated to te are not the same, so this is not reflexive. However, if the pretty girl bathes herself, then it becomes reflexive - Ella se va a bañar.
Basically with me and te, if the verb is conjugated to yo for me or tú for te, it is reflexive, and if not it is another type of object. Longer discussion:
Me quiero comprar una ropa'.
Since quiero is conjugated to yo, and me refers to yo, you know it is referring back to the person acting- I am wanting to buy it for myself- so it is an action that reflects back to the person doing the action.
Me quieres comprar algo- you want to buy me something- since the verb is conjugated to tú and me refers to yo, you know it is not reflexive, and since algo is the direct object, me is the indirect object.
The only place where you could get confused, is the third person/2nd formal, and there the pronouns le/les vs. se give you the information
Se quieren comprar algo- they or you all want to buy something for themselves or yourselves
Le quieren comprar algo- they or you all want to buy something for him/her/usted.
I know this particular aspect of grammar by instinct at this point, so have forgotten most of the grammar terms and may have misused some term.
I am not a grammarian, I think I made that clear in my first post, but:
In the sentence:
Quiere comprarle algo (a su novia).
Algo is the direct object, le (su novia) is the indirect object.
In the sentence:
Quiere comprarse algo (a sí mismo).
He wants to buy himself something, I have always seen “se” and “himself” called reflexive pronouns. It is in the place of the indirect object, and algo is still the direct object. Whether or not this is referred to as reflexive, or some other grammatical term is well beyond me- and gets into pure semantics if you know how it functions.
Quiero comprarme algo (a mí mismo).
Would seem functionally just like the above.
Perhaps someone with greater grammar knowledge can comment, I only learn grammar that is necessary to help me say the correct thing, if it gets into semantics that don’t aid in my ability to produce correct Spanish, I don’t bother.
Whenever I try to figure out with me or te, whether it is direct, indirect or reflexive, I always look at how it would be in 3rd person because the pronouns are different- direct- lo/los/la/las, indirect- le/les, reflexive- se. It works for me, even if all se is not reflexive.
