The use of personal pronouns of direct and indirect complement in Spanish it´s a complicated subject that provokes many doubts. Therefore, today we have prepared a post that will help you learn Spanish.
The use of personal pronouns of direct and indirect complement in Spanish can become a true horror, even sometimes for the Spanish speakers themselves. However, they serve to replace parts of the sentence and allow us to economize the language in an incredible way. Therefore, we have decided to talk about these little imps.
Thus, these complements can be replaced by the following pronouns.
On the one hand, those of direct complement (DC):
Yo: me
Tú: te
Él/ella: lo, la
Nosotros/as: nos
Vosotros/as: os
Ellos/as: los, las
On the other hand, those of indirect complement (IC):
Yo: me
Tú: te
Él/ella: le (se)
Nosotros/as: nos
Vosotros/as: os
Ellos/as: le (se)
So, when we explain it during our Spanish courses, the students ask us where is the problem? In knowing how to identify the aforementioned complements. For this, we must know the nature of the different Spanish verbs, without going too far into the jungle of syntax and morphology.
Independent verbs
They have meaning by themselves and do not need any complement, so we are not interested.
Él niño duerme = The kid sleeps
Mi hermana nada = My sister swims
Mi madre sonríe = My mother smiles
Verbs with DC and IC
Usually, the DC is an object and the IC is a person or an animal.
Mi madre escribe una carta (DC) a mi hermana (IC) = My mother writes a letter to my sister
Mi madre le escribe una carta = My mother writes a letter (to her)
Mi madre la escribe a mi hermana = My mother writes it to my sister
Verbs with DC
In this case the CD can be an object, a person or an animal.
Yo quiero a mi madre => Yo la quiero (I love my mother = I love her)
Yo quiero un coche => Yo lo quiero (I want a car = I want it)
Atention!
When we replace the DC and the IC in the same sentence…
*Mi madre le la escribe. => Mi madre se la escribe.
It is common to use IC even if it is not fulfilling its function:
Mi madre le escribe una carta a mi hermana = My mother writes a letter to my sister
Sometimes the position changes (periphrasis, imperative …):
Lleva a ella el agua => Llévasela (Take the water to it => Take it)
Quiero ver la película => La quiero ver/Quiero verla ( I want to see the movie => I want to see it)
We hope that after this explanation it will be easier for you and that I encourage you with your Spanish learning. And, for finish this blog, we announce your the next Friday´s teme: the New Year’s Eve in Valencia.
Meanwhile, our Spanish school El Rincón del Tándem wish you Merry Christmas!
