Día 16

¡Hola, señor!


A few days ago, you were working on both direct and indirect object pronouns in isolation  (I mean when we don't use them together in the same sentences) Let’s now look at how to combine Spanish direct and indirect object pronouns in a sentence.

Spanish direct and indirect object pronouns combined

This next part is where a number of Spanish students get into trouble.
I want to add a caveat that if this is really challenging for you, just use the direct object instead of the direct object pronoun (just like in the previous section).
Note that the direct object pronoun and indirect object pronoun will often combine after a relevant question.
For example:

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

English: Yes, she told it to me.
Español: Sí, me la dijo.

Here the direct object pronoun ‘la‘ represents the story and the indirect object pronoun ‘me‘ represents the speaker.
Next, we have to look at what happens when you combine the third person indirect object pronouns with direct object pronouns.
In Spanish, you never say ‘le lo‘, this actually becomes ‘se lo‘.
This is because ‘le lo‘ is actually harder to say. Try saying ‘le lo‘ three times fast, now try ‘se lo‘ three times fast.
It’s so much easier to say ‘se lo‘ than ‘le lo‘. That’s why this change happens.
Here is a list of all of the changes for third person indirect object pronouns combined with direct object pronouns:

Le lo → se lo
Le la → se la
Le los → se los
Le las → se las

Les lo → se lo
Les la → se la
Les los → se los
Les las → se las

Let’s look at these in action.

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

English: No, I won’t leave it for him because I need it.
Español: No, no se lo dejo porque lo necesito.

English: Did you rent your house to her?
Español: ¿Le has alquilado tu casa a ella?

English: Yes, I have rented it to her.
Español: Sí, se la he alquilado.

English: Have you thrown the tomatoes in the soup?
Español: ¿Le has echado los tomates a la sopa?

English: Yes, I have already thrown them in (it).
Español: Sí, ya se los he echado.

Also, if you have a compound phrase, you can change the location of the combined objects. For example:

English: Do you want to tell her what happened?
Español: ¿A ella le quieres contar lo que pasó?

English: Yes, I want to tell it to her.
Español: Sí, se lo quiero decir.
Español: Sí, quiero decírselo.

Note the small change you have to make with pronunciation when you move the object pronouns to the end. You have to put an accent on the last syllable of the verb.

As you can see, the best place to combine direct object pronouns and indirect object pronouns is after questions.

Despite these structures being a little tricky, there is good news.

The good news is that when these pronouns come up in your Spanish conversations, you will have some control over context.

For example, if you are talking with someone in Spanish and they ask you a question, you can choose to use a direct and indirect object pronoun or not.

Moreover, if you ask a native speaker a question and they answer with a combination of direct and indirect object pronouns, you will know from context because you asked the question.

Let's practice this a little bit!

1st. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate pronoun or verb form. You´ll need the verbs dar (to give); contar (to tell); escribir (to write) and comprar (to buy). Both escribir and comprar are regular verbs. You can find the conjugation for dar and contar in the link of each infinitive.

1. He gives it to me.
   

   Él lo da.
2. They give it to me.
   

   Ellos me lo .
3. We give them (f) to you.
   

   Nosotros te las .
4. I tell it to you.
   

   Yo te lo .
5. They give it to you.
   

   Ellas te dan.
6. They write it (f) to you.
   

   Ellos te la .
7. He buys them for you.
   

   Él te los .

 

2nd. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate pronouns.

1. He sings it (f) to her.
   

   él canta.
2. We sing it (f) to you.
   

   Nosotros cantamos.
3. We tell it to them.
   

   Nosotros contamos. 
4. I tell it to them.
   

   Yo cuento.
5. She buys them for you.
   

   Ella compra.
6. She cooks it (f) for him.
   

   Ella cocina.
7. We cook it (f) for him.
   

   Nosotros cocinamos.

   3. Try to do this oral activity!  

   If you need to look up for some verbs, do it. Try to focus on the use of pronouns. Note that they translate to tell as "decir" (yo digo/tú dices/él/ella dice/nosotros decimos/vosotros decís/ ellos dicen) while my suggested translation was "contar. In my opinion, it's easier at this point if you associate contar with to tell and decir with to say. 

   
   

   
   

   ¡Espero que vaya bien!