An indirect object pronoun being used without a direct object

Question

I dont understand when i see for example Ella le preguntó, or le explicó que en realidad...i dont see a direct object in these cases. Help, thanks.

Answer 1

So there's the girl (the subject), the question asked (d.o.) and the person asked (I.o.)

I find it helps to picture the scene. One person facing the other and the question, explanation, gift or whatever it might be between them - 3 elements being needed to form the sentence not 2

I am beginning to get it my dag friend. - ray76, Apr 20, 2015

Bien hecho Ray :) - Kiwi-Girl, Apr 20, 2015

Answer 2

As Kiwi wrote, in some cases the d.o. can be omitted. There are some verb exceptions in which there is only o.i but not d.o. This can happens with some case of certain verbs, for example "gustar", "admirar", etc..