Indirect object pronouns in a sentence
I have been pretty confused about indirect and direct object placement in sentences. I just got back a quiz that had 4 sentences wrong because i didn't rewrite them with the correct placement of IOs and DOs. One of the sentences i am really confused on i believe is something like "i want to go camping with them in the country." but i am not sure because i dont have access to the original sentence. I wrote my answer as "le deseo acampar en el campo." but this was marked as incorrect. I am not sure which part of this is wrong. Is the el campo part an indirect object to because the action is being done there? My teacher said that indirect objects are people so i am very confused. Please help!
4 Answers
There is one thing that you might want to be aware of:
Some Spanish speakers will say:
Le hablé or Le hablé a él.
And mean they had a conversation or mean that it was a one-way communication.
Which in English we could translate as either:
I spoke to him or I spoke with him.
Some other Spanish speakers say:
Hablé con él (correct grammar)
or even:
Lo hablé (probably rare)
This would be incorrect - as either either a case of loísmo or incorrectly treating the object of the preposition con as a direct object...as if one could say Hablé Pedro, ignoring the need for a personal a for a moment to make a point, and to make sure that it isn't interpreted as an indirect object)
I spoke with him.
It would also be grammatically incorrect to say:
Le hablé con él.
because él is an object of a preposition other than "a" and therefore not an IO.
But this doesn't mean you'll never see or hear it.
The whole world makes grammatical mistakes.
Also, don't get the notion what "a" is always translated as "to"
One can say:
Le compré un libro a ella
This can either be: I bought a book for her or I bought a book from her.
Or you could say:
Compré un libro para ella.
I bought a book for her.
Don't worry too much about this stuff. As you read more and more Spanish you will come across many varieties of sentence structures with different pronouns, seemingly "redundant pronouns" etc. etc. It all generally makes sense in context and isn't confusing once you get used to it.
A while back, I wrote an article on this, if anybody is interested, here's the link.
Indirect and Direct Object pronouns
"I want to go camping with them in the country" has no indirect object.
I = subject
want = verb
to go camping with them in the country = direct object
- with them = prepositional phrase
- in the country = prepositional phrase
"Le deseo acampar en el campo" is... I don't know.
(Yo) = subject (part of conjugated verb deseo)
deseo = verb
acampar en el campo = direct object
- en el campo = prepositional phrase
"Le" certainly looks like an indirect object, but it serves no purpose here, and if it did, it would be plural ("les") if referring to "them."
Although I am somewhat new to Spanish, I believe that IDs are a reference of to whom one is doing the action to. "[Te] {hablo} (en español)." = "{I talk/speak} [to you] (in Spanish). "Me / te / nos / le / les ---" = "--- to me / you / us / him/her/you formal / them/y'all (formal)". "Le deseo acampar en el campo." = "I desire to camping in the country." (Direct translation, incorrect grammar) From what I and Google Translate know, "I want to go camping with them in the country." = "Quiero ir a acampar con ellos en el campo." No IDs are necessary, as nothing is being done TO something, just with and in things and "to go" is the doing of a verb.
