Indirect object pronouns le and les

Question

Hi my first time here and hope someone can help me with the following. I was given a text in class which included the following two sentences: Las personas casadas le dan sobres rojos a las solteras. Un amigo le da a sus hijos un sobre con dinero. My question is: should les be used instead of le to agree with the plural number (solteras/hijos)? My teacher (she's from Venezuela) said that le is correct. Is it a regional difference?

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Answer 1

It definitely is a regional difference. All the good textbooks, such as "Panorama introducción a la lengua española" ,which I use in my classes, teach that "les" should be used in cases such as you have presented. Good luck with that Venezuelan teacher. It could be because sometimes Venezuelans don't always pronounce the final "s."

And you get a vote from from me for filling out your profile.

You are right. I have noticed for a long time that she skips the final "s", but I thought it's just individual difference. - wychiu, Feb 28, 2016

Answer 2

now that I think about it, It's a regional thing cause "les" is correct but here in Peru we say "le" quite a lot instead of "les" .

So at least in some Latin American countries, the use of le instead of les in plural objects is acceptable grammatically ? - wychiu, Feb 28, 2016

not indeed it's kind of a slang, if we're taking a grammar test, we have to speak correctly. but when we talk to friends we usually make that mistake but hardly ever someone realises it. - fernand2017, Mar 3, 2016

Thank you very much for your help! Muchas gracias! - wychiu, Mar 7, 2016

Answer 3

It´s only a regional difference if the S is not pronounced - we say comer las Ss. Many Carribean speakers do this, but they don´t drop he S in writing - if they do, they are using the language incorrectly.

Here in Andalucía it has gone, never to be heard again. Gracia, adio. - annierats, Feb 28, 2016

Seriously, is it really the case in Andalucia that they drop all the ending Ss? - wychiu, Feb 29, 2016