Confusing use of direct/indirect pronoun - 'Le'

Question

Hi all,

I've been learning Spanish for about six weeks and having covered the basics of direct & indirect pronouns, I have encountered a sentence that is causing much confusion for me.

"Roxanne. Salvaje y apasionada. Le encanta hacer el amor en los probadores".

Judging by the third person singular conjugation of 'encantar - to love/like', I'm pretty sure this is supposed to mean, "Roxanne. Wild and passionate. She loves to make love in the fitting rooms". However, 'le' is an object pronoun either meaning it, him, her or you (formal), so I'm struggling to make sense of it's use here.

Any help would be much appreciated and I thank you in advance!

Harry

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Answer 1

could I say 'Ella se encanta hacer el amor'? She loves to make love

No you would have to say ....

A ella Le encanta hacer el amor.

Broken down it works like this ....

A ella

To her (optional clarifier)

Le

to her (non-optional indirect object pronoun)

encanta

It is enchanting

Hacer el amor.

To make love.

Clear as always - padrin, Jul 14, 2015

gracias :) - Kiwi-Girl, Jul 14, 2015

Gracias por ayudame, Kiwi-girl - haz16debedfordia, Jul 15, 2015

Answer 2

I suspect that you are familiar with the verb "gustar." When in English we say,"I like it," in Spanish we say, "It pleases me" or "It is pleasing to me."

There are many other verbs that function this way... including "encantar." This category of verbs seems to be known best as

Verbs like gustar
Verbs like gustar

• I love her = Ella me encanta
• They bother me = Ellos me molestan
• My head hurts = Me duele la cabeza

Thanks this is really useful, but incredibly confusing. Is there a name for verbs that function in this way? 'Ella me encanta' just looks like 'she loves me', as 'ella' is the subject and 'me' is the object. 'They bother me' on the other hand is simple. - haz16debedfordia, Jul 13, 2015

I have added to my answer above. - jtaniel, Jul 13, 2015

Use it in place of I love her, but think of it grammatically like she is enchanting to me. - bosquederoble, Jul 13, 2015

Haz, I think (but am not sure) that to say "she loves me" using your phrase above, you would say "Ella mi encanta," with "mi" being a direct object. "Me" otoh is an indirect object. - Winkfish, Jul 13, 2015

Mi is a possessive pronoun, mí is the object of a preposition, me is both a direct and indirect object, encantar takes an indirect object which is le/les encanta and not la/las or lo/los encanta. - bosquederoble, Jul 13, 2015

Well, I've learned something else. Thanks, Bosque! - Winkfish, Jul 13, 2015

Answer 3

Encantar is similar to enchant linguistically, although the Spanish takes the indirect object- so it is more is enchanting to. It stands in for the English "love" when the context is love to do something, love something as opposed love someone romantically, etc.

Your translation seems good.

Le encanta hacer el amor.

To her enchants to make love.

To make love (enchants her/is enchanting to her)

She loves to make love.

For the verb encantar here- hacer el amor is the subject, she is the indirect object.

Are you from Bedford? - bosquederoble, Jul 13, 2015

Thanks very much for this. So its 'For her she loves to make love'. To make her the subject, could I say 'Ella se encanta hacer el amor'? She loves to make love. - haz16debedfordia, Jul 13, 2015

and yes, I am from Bedford! You? - haz16debedfordia, Jul 13, 2015

Don't try to force the English way on Spanish. Ella se encanta means she loves herself - very narcissistic- and it can't be followed by something else- she is now the subject and object. - bosquederoble, Jul 13, 2015

My wife was born in Bedford, but the family she knows is from Hull. :) - bosquederoble, Jul 13, 2015

We stopped and looked at the house she lived in when she was a little girl once when we traveled between Hull and London a number of years ago when we were visiting England. - bosquederoble, Jul 13, 2015

Answer 4

If you are in the classified ads section of your local newspaper please can you tell us which one it is. Seems like Roxanne is an interesting girl.

haha I like it. It's actually a quote from the film 'Crimen Ferpecto' which I am translating. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395125/. Es muy gracioso. Any insight on my question, Roy? - haz16debedfordia, Jul 13, 2015