Complacerlo o complacerte o complacerle?

Question

Oiga,podría tener usted la amabilidad de pagar el café con leche que acabo de tomar? Lamento no poder complacerlo. Mi pregunta es,por qué aquí es complacerLo,y no complacerTe o complacerLe? Gracias

Answer 1

Oiga,podría tener usted la amabilidad de pagar el café con leche que acabo de tomar? Lamento no poder complacerlo. Mi pregunta es,por qué aquí es complacerLo,y no complacerTe o complacerLe? Gracias

Usted was used by the questioner, politeness would normally require one to respond in kind- using formal (usted) not informal (tú) hence not te. Unless of course one was an adult and one a child, but the conversation does not seem to be that.

Complacer is transitive, and requires a direct object, hence lo= usted= the person asking the question.

In areas that use leísmo, you may see complacerle replace complacerlo. La would still be used in those areas for a female, not le- le only replaces lo for males with leísmo.

Answer 2

The one who asked help is a woman,so I don't understand why here use complacerlo pero no complacerla

In that case, it should be complacerla. :) - bosquederoble, Jun 26, 2016

I've no idea why it's complacerlo in my book - zhmelissa, Jun 26, 2016

I can think of no case in which lo would refer to a female, los can include females if it is a mixed group, lo can be neuter and abstract, but nothing I can think of would call for lo to refer to a female. :) - bosquederoble, Jun 26, 2016