"What should I teach you?"

Question

I translated this sentence, "What should I teach you?", as either: "¿Qué debería enseñarte?" or "¿Qué te debería enseñar?". Someone told me it should've been "¿Qué le debería enseñar?" or "¿Qué debería enseñarle?". My questions are:

Were they correct, and was I wrong about using the direct object pronoun te instead of indirect object le? (Were they just talking about "leismo"?)

If my translation is correct, would it be 'more' natural if I attached the "te" at the end of enseñar instead of placing it in front of "debería"?

Did I use the correct conjugation of deber here?

Thank you so much in advance!

Answer 1

Te, as you know, is the familiar DO/IO for "you". "Le" (the indirect object pronoun) is proper for the formal in this situation, and it is not leísmo.

An indirect object (le) is needed here because you are going to teach something TO me.

Your "debería" is OK and preferred by many, but the present tense "debo" would also be all right.

Got it? Good.

Thank you so much, Daniela, for a a very prompt reply (as always)! And just to clarify, as you said the present tense would also be all right, it would be "debo" for "I"? Thanks again! =) - tesss, Jun 19, 2016

Right again. :) - Daniela2041, Jun 19, 2016

I hit the wrong key when I wrote "debe" I'll fix it. - Daniela2041, Jun 19, 2016

Thanks so much! You're a savior! :) - tesss, Jun 19, 2016

De nada :) - Daniela2041, Jun 19, 2016

Answer 2

I like Dani´s answer. To add to it, when the verb is transitive you know that it acts upon a direct object even if it is not present such as this case, so the person being taught has to be the indirect object.

When the direct object is a person and male leísmo allows us to use le in place of lo, ie: "Mucho gusto en conocerlo(le)". In this case either pronoun is correct, but for formal usage and female - even though leísmo is often used incorrectly - it must be: "Mucho gusto en conocerla".

Thank you so much for the addition, Julian! Very much appreciated! - tesss, Jun 23, 2016