Reflexive verb help

Question

I know that reflexive verbs can have different meanings from their stem (ie. ir = to go and irse = to leave)

But there's still a lot I am confused about.

I came across this sentence: "Muy bien clase, denle su prueba a su vecino." "Very good class, give your test to your neighbor."

I have so many questions, like

1. Is "denle" of the reflexive "darse" or "dar"? How do we know when to use the reflexive?
2. Who/what is the "le" in "denle" referring to? The neighbor or the test?
3. Could you not instead say, "Le la den su prueba a su vecino"?

I don't know, these reflexives man, thanks for your help!

Answer 1

When "le" is used, it is usually an indirect object--to him, to her, to usted, etc. It is not reflexive at all.

Denle su prueba a su vecino" is actually " Give to him/her your test to your neighbor.

Spanish is the only language I know of that uses both the indirect object pronoun, and the direct object in the same sentence. Inasmuch as "le" is somewhat ambiguous, the "a su vecino" becomes a clarifier showing what the "le" is referring to.

It's sometimes called the "redundant" le. It's redundant to an English speaker because it is not done in English, or any other language I can think of for that matter.

I hope that clears up the mud---at least a little bit.

Buena suerte

P.Sl

Do you think you can do me and the rest of the folks here at SpanishDict a favor and fill out your profile? It really helps to know if you're male or female and how much Spanish you do know, if any. I and many other of the native speakers here will be able to answer your questions much better if you do this, Thanks.

Wow so "denle" is of dar and not of darse? That's a surprise. Thanks. PS, I just updated my profile =) - chrismabazza, Dec 25, 2014

Answer 2

Could you not instead say, "Le la den su prueba a su vecino"?

We can´t say this because of the awkward combination of le and la. For this combination we have to say Se la ....... In these cases, se becomes the indirect object personal pronoun. Additionally, it´s a little awkward - but grammatically correct - to use this sentence structure with the imperative of dar.

It is however acceptable and common to use second person present to indicate imperative with courtesy, although it´s probably not grammatically correct, ie: A su vecino se le da la prueba por favor. You could use this structure with third person plural present, but for me it would sound strange simply because it´s not common.

I agree with Daniela that there is no reflexive usage in your sentence.