le/lo in context of question

Question

I am doing a translation of a sentence: Mr Barros is going to hire Tomas.

I initially put: A Tomás le va a contratar el señor Borras.

And from what I understand, when a person is a DO and masculine you can use le/lo. In the answer key it indicates with a le/lo if you can use either in the translation, but in this case they just put Lo: A Tomás lo va a contrator el señor Borras.

Is my answer correct? Or must lo be used for this sentence in particular.

Welcome to the forum ,your language levels would help us better help you so please fill out your profile. - ray76, Jun 1, 2016

Sure thing! I'm constantly on here but never bothered to ask any questions. I'll update if it helps. - harero, Jun 1, 2016

Answer 1

Mr Barros is going to hire Tomas.

I initially put: A Tomás le va a contratar el señor Borras.

Ignoring that you switched the vowels in Barros to Borras- there are several comments one could make.

I believe this is a transitive verb that normally takes a direct object. Direct objects do not normally take a redundant pronoun unless the object comes before the verb. This is such a case, so you need one.

Normally that will be lo. In certain regions, primarily in Spain, leísmo is used, and lo is replaced by le (this is for males only, never inanimate objects, masculine or not, and not for la in the case of females (although there is laísmo where la replaces what should be le).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leísmo

Leísmo ("using le") is a dialectal variation in the Spanish language that occurs largely in Spain. It involves using the indirect object pronoun le in place of the (standard) masculine direct object pronoun lo, especially when the direct object refers to a male person.

Leísmo with animate objects is both common and prescriptively accepted in many dialects spoken in Spain, but uncommon in most others. Leísmo is always rejected in linguistic prescription when the direct object to which it refers is not an animate object. Examples:

Veo al chico ("I see the boy") ? Lo veo (standard Spanish, with lo)

Veo al chico ("I see the boy") ? Le veo (leísmo, common in Spain; other regions prefer lo veo)

Veo el árbol ("I see the tree") ? Le veo (not accepted in linguistic prescription — the tree is not a person)

The use of le in dialects where leísmo is common typically correlates with the use of the preposition a for animate direct objects. That is, if a dialect features leísmo, le replaces masculine direct objects that would have been preceded by a if expressed in full. (For this "personal a", see Spanish prepositions.)

Now in your sentence you could simply write:

El señor Barros va a contratar a Tomás.

And remove all confusion.

I am an interdediate level learner, please wait for comments to ensure that I did not get something wrong in my thinking.

I should have added in parenthesis they wanted to start with (A Tomas...) since it is a practice of object pronouns. So for DOs with people and masculine, lo is usually prefered over le i take it? would that make my initial answer wrong or just regional? - harero, Jun 1, 2016

Both answers are correct - Ramonaspiker, Jun 1, 2016

Just regional. But it would work well in many parts of Spain. :) - bosquederoble, Jun 1, 2016

Good answer. Gets my vote. Others should give you a vote as well. - Daniela2041, Jun 1, 2016

Thanks for the responses guys! - harero, Jun 1, 2016

Thanks, Daniela. :) - bosquederoble, Jun 1, 2016

This is a very good answer. I would just add that the use of "leísmo" is a phenomnum that is accepted, rather than necessary - 005faa61, Jun 1, 2016