Indirect/direct object help?!?
Le pregunté a Ana
In this sentence would 'a Ana' be the indirect object? And if so, why? I thought this meant 'He asked Ana', which wouldn't that make it the direct object
4 Answers
To correctly say in Spanish "I asked Ana" would be "Le pregunté a Ana."
"Ana" is indeed the indirect object, because what you asked Ana (but is not stated) is a *question" and is the unstated direct object.
Note that in Spanish, both the indirect object "Ana" and the indirect object pronoun "le" are used. This usage is quite different from English usage and sometimes drives English speakers crazy.
Le is an indirect object in this case.
Le should never be used as a direct object when representing a female person.
I think of it this way:
I asked Ana (something) - something is implied / unstated
Something is the direct object.
Ana is the indirect object
I believe, in English, we cannot have an indirect object unless there is a direct object.
This happens frequently in Spanish, however.
There are many verbs in Spanish which work this way. The most common one, I think, is decir.
Le dije. - I told him/her. Again, there is an implied something/algo.
"Ana" would be the indirect object. The sentence "(Le) [pregunté] (a) {Ana}." = "[I asked] {Ana}.", or more precisely, "[I asked] (to/at) {Ana}." You did the action of asking, directed at Ana. The "Le" is an indirect pronoun, representing the direction of the verb "pregunté" at "Ana", the indirect object.
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