Help me please with Direct Object Pronouns

Question

Can someone please explain direct subject pronouns to me like (lo, la, las, los, te, me and nos). And if you could give me an example for each one... like I don't really understand it. For example for my sentence "Mi familia y yo visitamos Florida" I put "Mi familia y yo nos visitamos". But I dont know if it is right. I dont even know if it makes sense.

Answer 1

Rachel -- in addition to what's already been said, what might be causing a bit of confusion is that these Spanish pronouns often don't differentiate between various different meanings. Principally (though this isn't the whole story), they can generally be:
- a direct object (the simple 'us', 'me' meaning-- if the verb means "to X", then the direct object is generally the "thing being Xed", though with some exceptions): nos vio = he/she saw us
- an indirect object (the notion of 'to us', 'for us'): nos dio un libro = he gave us a book
- direct reflexive (the notion of 'ourselves', 'myself' etc): nos levantamos = we get (ourselves) up
- indirect reflexive (the notion of 'to ourselves', 'to myself'): quisimos darnos más tiempo = we wanted to give ourselves more time
- direct reciprocal (the notion of 'each other'): nos vemos! = we'll see each other! (="see you!")
- indirect reciprocal (the notion of 'to each other'): nos dimos regalos = we gave each other presents

This means that strictly an utterance such as nos levantamos can be ambiguous ("we got up" or "we got one another up"), but in practice this ambiguity tends not to matter and the intended meaning is clear. (Obviously Spanish does have devices for resolving this ambiguity when it's really necessary, but it's usually not.)

The "third person" pronouns 'lo', 'la', 'los', 'las' are generally only ever direct pronouns: for the reflexive and reciprocal meanings, 'se' is used instead: so "they got (themselves) up" is se levantaron. (And for the normal 'indirect' function of 'to him/her', 'to them', le is generally used in the singular and les in the plural: le di un libro = I gave him/her a book; les di un libro = I gave them a book).

Note that sometimes other translations are more idiomatic. For example, se comió dos pasteles would literally mean something like "he/she ate two cakes for him/herself", but in more idiomatic English you'd say something like "he got through two whole cakes", "he scoffed two whole cakes" etc.

Answer 2

Have a look at this, the best we have on objects, posted by Lazarus

[url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A1063017]objects and verbs[/url]

You can also do t[url=http://my.spanishdict.com/vocabulary/vocabulary/show'id=1710195%3ATermList%3A1033651]his vacabulary list[/url] with useful sentences.

Answer 3

lazarus1907 said:

LAs Visitamos = We visited them (all women)

Sorry for the typo.

Answer 4

"I am really quite sure it is a typo"

I think that there is a highly technical, esoteric term for the phenomenon. People in the writing field refer to it as a "Heidita".

Answer 5

It makes me smile to think that "voting with me won't matter" ... and then to realize that it is especially in a language that the "count" of people who find something correct or not correct is exactly what does matter Thank you for your moral support...I am really quite sure it is a typo.

La Podenquera said:

I agree with you Janice but I have been wrong so many times so I'd better keep my mouth shout : D

Janice said:

I think that there is a typo here in the last sentence. The "o" in the last "los" should be an "a". (Now I pray I am right, and will be sitting on pins and needles until I hear and very embarassed if I am wrong.)We visited them (all of them were women) translates to "Las visitamos."

lazarus1907 said:

Visitamos Florida = We visited FloridaTe Visitamos = We visited you Lo Visitamos = We visited him La Visitamos = We visited herLos Visitamos = We visited them (all guys / men and women)Los Visitamos = We visited them (all women)

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Answer 6

I think that there is a typo here in the last sentence. The "o" in the last "los" should be an "a". (Now I pray I am right, and will be sitting on pins and needles until I hear and very embarassed if I am wrong.)

We visited them (all of them were women) translates to "Las visitamos."

lazarus1907 said:

Visitamos Florida = We visited Florida Te Visitamos = We visited you Lo Visitamos = We visited him

La Visitamos = We visited her

Los Visitamos = We visited them (all guys / men and women)

Los Visitamos = We visited them (all women)

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Answer 7

Original sentence: Mi familia y yo visitamos Florida.

With pronoun: Mi familia y yo la visitamos.

(We visited it).

Answer 8

Visitamos Florida = We visited Florida
Te Visitamos = We visited you
Lo Visitamos = We visited him
La Visitamos = We visited her
Los Visitamos = We visited them (all guys / men and women)
Los Visitamos = We visited them (all women)

Answer 9

Thank you but do you know how to make my original sentence make sense using a direct pronoun'

Answer 10

Mi familia y yo = My family and I = We

Visitamos = we visited

Visitamos Florida = We visited Florida.

Nos = us, ourselves, each other (all related to US)

Nos visitamos = we visited each otther / we visited ourselves '''?

Mi familia y yo nos visitamos = My family and I visited each other