Leísmo/ Laísmo

Question

After reading up on Leísmo and Laísmo I was wondering if any native Spanish speakers actually use the proper direct object pronoun (lo/la) when saying phrases such as:

I saw him - Lo vi / Le vi I told her the truth - Yo la dije la verdad / Yo le dije la verdad (I understand that grammatically both of these phrases should use the direct object pronoun)

If any native/ advanced Spanish speakers could give me advice on whether to use the direct pronoun or the indirect would be great. Thanks

Answer 1

Even though the RAE accepts leísmo in this case, Le vi is grammatically incorrect because ver is normally a transitive verb, so it requires a direct object, which in this case would be lo / la (him / her or formal "you"). Le should only be used for indirect objects.

Mucho gusto en conocerle: Accepted for male person as direct object, but grammatically correct usage is: Mucho gusto en conocerlo / conocerla.

Decir is also a transitive verb, so the correct way is: Yo le (indirect object) dije la verdad (direct object).

Ok thanks :) - Cameron2407, Mar 10, 2017

Answer 2

Leísmo is a common mistake but laísmo? I don't think any native speaker would say something such as "yo la dije la verdad".

"Le vi" is actually correct in Spain as long as "le" refers to a male, the RAE accepted it because a lot of Spanish speakers were using it, but it's still considered a mistake in Latin America. You should stick to the direct object pronoun.

Ok thanks :) - Cameron2407, Mar 10, 2017