Implied direct objects
After reading Daniela's great article on direct/indirect objects, I feel like I have a much better grasp on the idea. The remaining doubts I have are related to verbs that seem to carry an implied direct object like hablar, contar, decir, etc.
What is the rational for these to be used with "le" and not "lo"? And where is the line to stop trying to explain an implied direct object?
Gracias a todos.
1 Answer
I was waiting for someone else to answer this, but I will since it goes unanswered.
All of the verbs you mention, --hablar, contar decir all take the indirect object whether it is followed by a stated direct object or not.
I spoke to him. Le hablé
No le dije una mentira. (d/o) I did not tell (to him-- le) a lie.
Te (to you) voy a contar la historia de "La caperucita roja." (la historia----etc.) is the d/o. "To you I am going to tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
In English they do change the word order around somewhat. "I'm going to tell ('to' is unstated) you the story (d/o) of L.R.R.H.)
In English, the identifier for an indirect object--"to" is usually unstated which gives the English speaker problems when learning Spanish.
The logic, however, is the same as in English.
