Llamarlo vs llamarte

Question

Hi everyone! I'm sorry I haven't been on for a while! Here's a quick question:

A grammar book I'm reviewing says that: "We should have called you last night, but we did not" in Spanish would be:

Debimos llamarlo a usted anoche pero no lo hicimos

Why isn't it llamarte or llamarle? And should there be a comma before "pero"? Thanks so much!

Answer 1

"Llamarlo is the proper direct object pronoun for "usted." Some Spaniards like myself prefer to use "le" for the formal or "usted" form, but it's not universally accepted.

A comma after "anoche" would indicate a break (for breath maybe) in the sentence, the writer preferred not to. There are rules for punctuation which may be found in SD"s articles on grammar.

Here's a link. Link to punctuation

Oh what a beautiful moseyer you are , thanks mate. - ray76, Jul 29, 2016

Every once in a while I "mosey" around a little looking for something interesting to answer. - Daniela2041, Jul 29, 2016

Thanks Daniela! So "we should have called you" is not an indirect object pronoun? - Ramonaspiker, Jul 29, 2016

If I had known that you were going to use the Present Perfect, I would have said "Debemos haberlo llamado" However I wasn't sure if you knew the "perfect tenses." And yes "you" here is a direct object pronoun. - Daniela2041, Jul 30, 2016

This is why it so important to include the English version of these sentences and phrases. - Daniela2041, Jul 30, 2016

When a modal is before "have + past participle", the latter is called "perfect infinitive". - Oshnaj, Jul 31, 2016

I know the perfect tenses, but this is what the grammer book I'm reviewing says. I said in my question that the grammar book translates "We should have called you last night, but we did not" to "Debimos llamarlo a usted anoche pero no lo hicimos" - Ramonaspiker, Jul 31, 2016

Technically, I did include the English version. Anyways thanks for using the perfect present! It's cool to review tenses and direct object pronoun placement - Ramonaspiker, Jul 31, 2016

The book's translation is wrong. — "debimos" implies the past tense of the first person pural for "deber". - Oshnaj, Jul 31, 2016

Thanks Oshnaj! What should it be? - Ramonaspiker, Aug 3, 2016

See my answer below. - Oshnaj, Aug 5, 2016

Answer 2

The translation is: debimos haberte(lo) llamado anoche, pero no lo hicimos.

As already pointed out, lo is the proper way when referring to someone as usted. However, when the same age is implied, or when you are older than the other person (even sometimes to your own relatives who you live with), you use te when referring to you without the person being considered as usted.

Thank you Oshnaj for filling out your profile , that is worth a vote from me . - ray76, Jul 31, 2016

Okay. Thanks Oshnaj! I was just confused about my direct and indirect object pronouns. Wasn't sure why lo was used instead of le, but now I see that "you" is a direct object pronoun :) - Ramonaspiker, Jul 31, 2016