lo, le ,nos, me, se, les

Question

Please explain the rules for the use of these words in Spanish sentence construction.

E.g. Que les da el profesor a las alumnos?
Why is les used before the verb. Can't you just "Que da el profesor a las alumnos?

Is the object always written/said before the verb'

Answer 1

I am just answering this for fun. Anyway, I guess Spanish uses redudant object pronouns for emphasis. In English, we either use the pronoun or the name of the indirect object, but not both:

"You give the money to Brian" or "You give the money to him." But not: "You give him the money to Brian."

But in Spanish we get to use both the pronoun and the indirect object . In fact, even if you identify the person by name, you must still use an indirect object pronoun.

Yo le doy el dinero a Brian, not Yo doy el dinero a Brian.

To my ears, sometimes it seems like Spanish grammatically is backwards compared to English. English uses verb followed by DO and IO. Spanish uses IO, DO, VERB.

Anyway, I doubt anybody will read this, but I think I got it right

Doubt? Not true. I was not around here in 2008 when the post was fresh. Thanks! - pesta, Nov 17, 2010

Answer 2

Direct objects receive the action of a verb in a sentence Direct object pronouns replace that noun. Just like personal (subject) pronouns replace the subject noun in a sentence, direct object pronouns replace the direct object noun in a sentence which can be a person or a thing. Almost all of our favorite sentences have direct objects in them: I love you, Call me, etc.

Direct Object Pronouns

	Singular	Plural
1st person	me (me)	nos (us)
2nd person	te (you, familiar)	os (you, familiar plural)
3rd person	lo, la (him, her, you formal)	los, las (them, you, formal plural)

Examples

Below you will find some examples. The direct objects are all in bold and is always the word or phrase that receives the action from the verb.

Placement

In affirmative sentences with one simple verb, the direct object pronoun comes before the verb.

• Yo te quiero. (I love you.)

• Tú me quieres. (You love me.)

• Yo veo a Caterina. (I see Caterina.)

• Yo la veo. (I see her.)

• Carmen lee el libro. (Carmen reads the book.)

• Carmen lo lee. (Carmen reads it.)

• Manuel tiene la flor. (Manuel has the flower.)

• Manuel la tiene. (Manuel has it.)

• Maria tiene tres libros. (Maria has three books.)

• Maria los tiene. (Maria has them.)

• Mi hermano compra dos camisas. (My brother buys two shirts.)

• Mi hermano las compra. (My brother buys them.)

Attaching the Direct Object Pronoun

In the case of infinitives, present participles, and affirmative commands you can attach the direct object pronoun to the end of the verb, or you can put it before the first verb.

• Estoy limpiándola. La estoy limpiando. (I am cleaning it.)
• Voy a hacerla. La voy a hacer. (I am going to do it.)

Command Placements

Attach direct object pronouns to the end of affirmative commands, but place them before a negative command.

• Léalo. (Read it.)
• No lo lea. (Don´t read it.)

Answer 3

Angie Grandison said:

How did you add the accent mark one Que through the Internet? Here is another sentence. Sres., les digo yo algo. Why is "yo" used in this sentence?

1) "Rules/Resources" (above) and then "Typing" for assistance with accents, etc.
2) Actually, it would be much better to omit the "yo".

Answer 4

Thanks for answering my question and correcting my grammar. How did you add the accent mark one Que through the Internet?
So it's my understanding that the indirect object is always used and placed before the conjugated verb and the direct object goes after the verb. Is that correct?

Here is another sentence. Sres., les digo yo algo. Why is "yo" used in this sentence?

lazarus1907 said:

Translating literally:Que les da el profesor a las alumnos? = That the teacher gives to the students'¿Qué les da el profesor a las alumnos? = What does the teacher give to the students'Anyway, this extra "le" is not redundant: it prepares the hearers for "inverted" constructions in most situations, and it informs of the aspect of the verb in some cases. Suffice to say that there are very few cases where omitting the pronoun is acceptable, and ever fewer where omitting it is necessary. In Spanish we say (translating word by word) "I like when you do that", but in English you normally say "I like it when you do that"; most grammars for Spanish speakers who want to learn English describe this "it" as a "preparatory pronoun" (it alerts hearers for what it is about to come), but to most Spanish speakers it is redundant, and since in Spanish this redundancy would be wrong, illogical. I wonder why Spanish grammars written in English call this pronoun "redundant", and not something like "preparatory pronoun".

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Answer 5

Hi Natasha,
Thanks for your response. I also got another response that you can view on the forum. As a begining Spanish learner, your feedback is greatly appreciated. I am still trying to absorb this exercise.
Angie

Angie Grandison said:

Natasha said:

Questions about direct objects / indirect objects are common on this forum. See [url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A163315]this discussion[/url] for starters.In the case of indirect objects, what´s been said before is that while redundant [to English speakers] indirect object pronouns may sometimes not be mandatory, Spanish language learners should use them.Placement of object pronouns can be flexible in Spanish. You might like to look at the reference section (although it's been noted to have some mistakes).

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Answer 6

Natasha said:

Questions about direct objects / indirect objects are common on this forum. See [url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A163315]this discussion[/url] for starters.In the case of indirect objects, what´s been said before is that while redundant [to English speakers] indirect object pronouns may sometimes not be mandatory, Spanish language learners should use them.Placement of object pronouns can be flexible in Spanish. You might like to look at the reference section (although it's been noted to have some mistakes).

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Answer 7

Translating literally:

Que les da el profesor a las alumnos? = That the teacher gives to the students?
¿Qué les da el profesor a las alumnos? = What does the teacher give to the students?

Anyway, this extra "le" is not redundant: it prepares the hearers for "inverted" constructions in most situations, and it informs of the aspect of the verb in some cases. Suffice to say that there are very few cases where omitting the pronoun is acceptable, and ever fewer where omitting it is necessary. In Spanish we say (translating word by word) "I like when you do that", but in English you normally say "I like it when you do that"; most grammars for Spanish speakers who want to learn English describe this "it" as a "preparatory pronoun" (it alerts hearers for what it is about to come), but to most Spanish speakers it is redundant, and since in Spanish this redundancy would be wrong, illogical. I wonder why Spanish grammars written in English call this pronoun "redundant", and not something like "preparatory pronoun".

Answer 8

Questions about direct objects / indirect objects are common on this forum. See [url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A163315]this discussion[/url] for starters.

In the case of indirect objects, what´s been said before is that while redundant [to English speakers] indirect object pronouns may sometimes not be mandatory, Spanish language learners should use them.

Placement of object pronouns can be flexible in Spanish. You might like to look at the reference section (although it's been noted to have some mistakes).