Día 13

 ¡Hola, Andy!


Use of object pronouns is a tricky point in learning Spanish! I had written a complete explanation by my own and, when I was looking for activities, I found a couple of websites which did it way better than me. So, I've just deleted my lesson and taken most of this post from other sources :-)

What are Andy's tasks for today?

1º Lee el texto (Read the text)

So, what is an object pronoun?

A pronoun is a word that you use to substitute for a noun.
An object receives the action of the verb—either directly or indirectly (we’ll get back to this).
Thus an object pronoun is a word that you use to replace the object of a sentence.
Let’s look at a couple of examples of  simple English sentences:

I eat ice cream.

I eat it (direct object)

— Can you give this parcel to Sara and Lucas?
— Yes, I will give it to them tomorrow.(it= direct object; them=indirect object)

The problem is that, in Spanish, the form fo the pronouns is different depending on whether the action receives the action directly or indirectly...

The Spanish direct and indirect object pronouns

Here is a table of the Spanish direct and indirect object pronouns and their English equivalents:

(Person)	English Object Pronouns	Spanish Direct Object Pronouns	Spanish Indirect Object Pronouns
(Yo)	Me	Me	Me
(Tú)	You	Te	Te
(Él / Ella)	Him / Her / It	Lo / La	Le
(Nosotros)	Us	Nos	Nos
(Vosotros)	You all	Os	Os
(Ellos / Ellas)	Them	Los / Las	Les

As you can see from the table, there is a big challenge you have to deal with.
When using direct and indirect object pronouns in Spanish, you have to decide between ‘lo‘ and ‘le‘ for the translation of ‘him’ and ‘it’, ‘la‘ and ‘le‘ for the translation of ‘her’ and ‘it’, and ‘los‘, ‘las‘ and ‘les‘ for the translation of ‘them’.
But, if you know the word you want to translate is a direct object pronoun or indirect object pronoun in English, then you will know which word to choose in Spanish.

(I know you have the list of direct object pronouns, but I'd copy this table in your notebook as well since I find it very clear and useful. You might want to leave a couple of columns to add possessive determiners and pronouns at some other point).

How to use Spanish direct object pronouns

Remember that in order to use a direct object pronoun, you need to know what the direct object is from context.
Let’s look at the example sentences from above.

English: Can you see my book?
Español: ¿Puedes ver mi libro?

English: Yes, I see it.
Español: Sí, lo veo.

In this example, you need to use ‘lo‘ because it is the direct object pronoun for ‘book’. And, since ‘book’ is masculine in Spanish, you need to use ‘lo‘ and not ‘la‘.
Also, importantly, you need to put the ‘lo‘ before the conjugated verb.
Note how the sentence order is different. It feels strange coming from English to put the direct object pronoun before the conjugated verb. But, this is something you’ll simply to have to get used to.
That said, if you have a ‘compound phrase‘ which is a conjugated verb followed by a verb in infinitive form, you can switch the order.
For example:

English: Yes, I can see it.
Español: Sí, lo puedo ver.
Español: Sí, puedo verlo.

Note that the ‘lo‘ can go before or after the compound phrase. Which is useful because the second sentence is much closer to English.

Here’s another example:

English: These boxes are very heavy, I can’t lift them.
Español: Estas cajas son muy pesadas, no puedo levantarlas.
Español: Estas cajas son muy pesadas, no las puedo levantar.

2º Try to complete the gaps with the proper pronoun (either subject pronoun or direct object pronoun). Words in brackets mean that they can (and sometimes should, to sound more natural) be avoided:

They want the book --> (Ellos) __ quieren

I know Nina ..> (__) __ conozco

Andy cooks that sauce very well --> Andy __ cocina muy bien

 Rafa prepares the coffees ---> Rafa __ prepara

 He has the racket -->(__) __ tiene

Anxiety eats me --> La ansiedad __ come


3º Can you create 5 more sentences using direct pronouns?

How to use Spanish indirect object pronouns

So, as mentioned earlier, the difficulty in Spanish comes when we have to use a different pronoun for direct and indirect forms. In order to use an indirect object pronoun, you need a special kind of verb.
You need a verb that can indirectly affect other things by its action.
A few of these common verbs in Spanish are: alquilar (to rent), dar (to give), decir (to tell/to say), dejar (to lend), regalar (to give a present), and vender (to sell).
One thing to keep in mind is that these verbs don’t have to have an indirect object. It’s just that they commonly they do.

For example:

English: Will you leave him the car?
Español: ¿Le dejas el coche?

Note the indirect object pronoun is ‘him’. The action of leaving the ‘car’ is indirectly affecting ‘him’ because now he can use the car.

Another example:

English: Did she tell you the story?
Español: ¿Te dijo la historia?

Here ‘you’ are the indirect object because you are indirectly affected by ‘her’ telling the story.

Here is another example:

English: I have rented my house to her.
Español: Le he alquilado mi casa (a ella).

Often you know from context who the person is so you don’t need the ‘a ella‘. But if it isn’t clear, or you need to make it explicit, you can demonstrate that the indirect object pronoun is male or female with ‘a él‘ and ‘a ella‘.

4º Try to complete the gaps with the proper pronoun (either subject pronoun or direct object pronoun). Words in brackets mean that they can (and sometimes should, to sound more natural) be avoided:

Javi buys some flowers to Zaida --> Javi __ compra flores (a Zaida)

I lend books to my friends --> Yo __ presto libros (a mis amigos)

He sends me weird messages --> (__) __ envía mensajes extraños

Nina doesn't rent the room to Rafa --> Nina no __ alquila la habitación (a Rafa)

Jim lends the racquet to Andy --> Jim __ presta la raqueta (a Andy)

Marc y Andy teach Evelia how to play póker --> _____ __  enseñan a jugar al póker


3º Can you create 3 more sentences using indirect pronouns? (You can use your large list of verbs!)



I can imagine this is a bit tough (but needed). I'd advice you not to get too stressful with it, we will be back to this in a few days, making it a bit harder :-), (just as the plank challenge is getting harder to Evelita every day... )

Feliz tarde y un beso grande