lo vs. le as object pronoun
Please explain why "le" is used as an object pronoun sometimes and "lo" is used other times.
2 Answers
Le is used as an indirect object, lo as a direct object.
Direct objects are what the action directly acts on
Indirect objects are what are affected by the action, but not the direct recipient of the action.
For example:
I said it to him. I told him it.
Se lo dije.
Le becomes se before lo, but that se really means le.
Lo- is what was said- the direct object.
Le is the person being told, he is affected, but he was not said, you can’t say a person you have to say something to a person.
There is the added complication that in some dialects especially from parts of Spain, le will be substituted for lo- and so le will be used as the direct object for a male direct object- this is a phenomenon known as leísmo.
It is a dialectal variation called 'leismo' that occurs largely in Spain and rarely in Latinamerica.
