Indirect Object Pronoun Le/les Required?
I am confused about the indirect object pronoun "le" and "les". If the noun is included in the sentence, is the pronoun still required? Please tell me if these sentences are correct, and if not, why not.
Le dije a mi esposo, -Quiero ir a España-.
Mi hijo le dio un anillo a su novia.
2 Answers
If the actual noun precedes the verb, an object pronoun is needed, whether it be direct or indirect.
If the noun follows the verb, and is an indirect object it is normal to mark it with an indirect pronoun, if it is a direct object, you normally do not use the pronoun. This is not obligatory, but it is normal.
Le dije a mi esposo, -Quiero ir a España-.
Mi hijo le dio un anillo a su novia.
These look good to me. In both cases you used the indirect object pronoun, and you did not mark the direct object "un anillo" with one. This is very normal sounding Spanish to me.
Note if you changed the word order:
Un anillo se lo dio a su novia.
Here I put the direct object at the front (it emphasizes it), so had to include lo (obligatory as I said in the first), which caused le to become se. Even though it still means le.
Yes, they are required. English speaking teachers of Spanish call this construction the "redundant le" (or "les") You can also use "a mí", "a ti", "a nosotros", etc in the same way. see my article on this for further explanation.
