Help with editing sentences using pronouns.
I want to translate this sentence into Spanish: He presented/introduced me to his wife
I think "me" is the direct object pronoun. I know "to his wife" is the indirect object pronoun. So would this sentence be correct? Él le me presenta a su esposa.
How about this? I forgot it (my homework): Se me la olvidó
The order of the pronouns is correct I think: Reflexive, Indirect, Direct
This is how I remember that "se" goes before "me": La SEmana es antes de el MEs
2 Answers
For the presentar question:
I do not know why, but with presenter, the way I have seen it, there is not normally a redundant indirect object.
From our dictionary for presentar:
me presentó a sus amigos she introduced me to her friends—no les for a sus amigos.
Take also this sentence from our dictionary entry for presentar:
permítame que le presente a nuestra directora allow me to introduce you to our manager, I'd like you to meet our manager
Note the use of usted- so le for you (it does not refer to a nuestra directora)- this could be easily let me introduce our new manager to you, instead of you to our new manager. There is nothing to make one the one being presented to the other.
I think in Spanish it is sort of a mutual thing- you are presenting each to the other, so no redundant pronouns and they are treated equally, but the indirect pronoun is used if one of the parties is not named.
So I would drop the le from your sentence: Él me presentó a su esposa (I changed presenta to presentó because your English was past tense).
Él le presentó a su esposa could be he presented her/him to his wife- where le=him/her is previously mentioned third party, and not su esposa.
This is a much more vague understanding than I usually post, so wait for other answers.
The olvidar question:
Se me la olvidó
When you have three pronouns in front of the verb you generally have bad Spanish, even when you think the rules you learned would allow it.
Olvidé algo- lo olvidé- I forgot something I am the subject algo/lo the direct object.
Me olvidé de algo – My mind slipped on me about something I have seen some places that allow “me lo ovidé” which should not be the case as the de distances it from the verb- it should be more Me olvidé de eso. I am the subject/pronominal object- which usually requires a pronoun to separate the other involved party. Still I have seen some people allow the drop of the de.
Se me olvidó algo- something slipped itself from me- here algo is the subject, and pronominal object, it would not be replaced with a direct object (lo or la). Me is who it happened to- the indirect object. No room for direct object. Se me olvidó (subject implicit).
