Preface

Order of Topics

In the next few chapters we will deal with three sequentially ordered topics. The first will deal with object pronouns, direct and indirect. The second will deal with verbs requiring the use of the indirect object pronouns (i.e. gustar), and the third will deal with the reflexive verbs. It is essential to remember that the three topics are linked together, and follow the same rules.

What are the Object Pronouns?

1. The object that directly receives the action of the verb is called the direct object (DO), and answers the question ‘what?’ or ‘whom?’
2. The indirect object (IO) answers the question ‘to whom?’ or ‘for whom?’ the action of the verb is done.
3. The objects (indirect and direct) are placed adjacent to the verb, either before it or after it. We will later state the rules for placing the objects either before or after the verb.

1. Give me! (Dar, to give) ¡Dame! (Indirect object that is placed after the verb)
2. I love you (Amar, to love) Te amo (Indirect object that is placed before the verb)

The Specific Object and the General Object

In Spanish, as in English, we differentiate between the specific and the general object pronouns.
The general object (discussed in this chapter) relates to pronouns (i.e. to me, him, etc.) and does not relate to a named person or thing.
The specific object (which will be discussed in the chapter dealing with prepositions) relates to a named person or entity (i.e. ‘to John’, ‘the ball’), and is used by adding a preposition in front of it.

Unlike English, Spanish allows the usage of the object along with the named person or entity in reference, e.g. I am buying him (to Marco) two birds Yo le compro dos pájaros, a Marco.
Although it seems redundant, Spanish uses both Indirect Object (le) and the named person (a Marco) to clarify the meaning of the sentence.

Table of Objects

Using Objects

First and Second-Person (yo, tú, nosotros)

As shown in the table, there is no difference in the first and second-person form between direct and indirect object pronouns:
me means ‘me’ and ‘to (for) me’
te means ‘you’ and ‘to (for) you’
nos means ‘us’ and ‘to (for) us’.

As stated previously, the direct pronoun form is identical to the indirect pronoun form, thus there is no need to recognize the difference between direct and indirect objects.

1. I love her {ra (Yo) la amo
2. She loves me (Ella) me ama
3. We love you-all (Nosotros) los amamos

Third-Person (Él/Ella/Ud./Ellos/Ellas/Uds.)

The table shown in section 2 shows the difference between the genders and objects (DO and IO) in third-person form. We will only discuss the third-person singular form (él/ella/Ud.) simply because the variation of the object is similar to the third-person plural form (ellos/ellas/Uds.), adding an ‘-s’ to go from singular to plural form, i.e. if for him (él) the object is ‘lo’ then for them (ellos) the object will be ‘los.’

In order to make reading and learning easier, we have taken out the third-person singular form from the table in section 2:

In some countries, when the indirect or direct object refers to a person we will use ‘le’.

We love her (Nosotros) la amamos

When the indirect or direct object refers to an object we will use ‘lo’ or ‘la’ according to the gender of the object.

Example 1: We take it (the book, masculine in Spanish) (Nosotros) lo tomamos (el libro)
Example 2: We take it (the table, feminine in Spanish) (Nosotros) la tomamos (la mesa)

An explanation of the use of ‘se’ as an object will be given in section 5.2 of this chapter.

Positioning the Object in a Sentence

Introduction

The rules presented below apply to all three topics dealt with in this chapter and the next two chapters: objects, ‘Me gusta’ and verbs that require the use of the indirect object pronouns, and the reflexive verbs. We state again that the object is always placed adjacent to the verb, either before or after it.

The Object Placed AFTER the Verb

The object pronoun will appear after the verb in the following cases:
a. When the verb is conjugated as an affirmative command, i.e. ‘Tell him’ Dile!
b. When the verb is in the infinitive form, i.e. ‘to buy us’ comprarnos!

Object or objects that are placed after the verb will be attached to the end of the verb, and in cases of using two objects, attached to each other.

The Object Placed BEFORE the Verb

The object pronoun will appear before the verb in the following cases:
a. When the verb is conjugated as a negative command, i.e. ‘dont tell him’ ¡no le digas!
b. When the verb is conjugated in a simple tense (present simple, past simple, future simple…), i.e. ‘I buy you’ te compro.

Further along in the learning, we will learn the gerundio form of the verb, similar to the ‘–ing’ suffix in English. For all tenses using the gerundio, it is up to the speaker to choose whether to place the object before or after the verb. If the sentence contains two objects, they can be placed either before or after the verb, but have to be placed adjacent to one another.

Using Two Objects Relating to one Verb

Order of Objects

In Spanish objects are placed in the following order: the indirect object will appear first (‘to me’, ‘to you’,etc.), and the direct object will appear second (‘him’, ‘her’, etc.).

As mentioned, objects can be placed either before or after the verb, though positioning of one object relative to another is crucial. Both options of object positioning relating to one verb can be shown graphically in the following illustrations:

Second option: The objects appear after the verb
The full sentence reads, ‘Read it (you) to me!’

As mentioned above, objects appearing after the verb are attached to the end of the verb. Therefore, the sentence, ‘Read it (you) to me!’ should be written as one joined unit ¡Léemelo!

Two Objects in Third-Person

I throw (Tirar, to throw) it (singular) to her
a. I throw Yo tiro
b. It lo
c. Her le
d. Yo le lo tiro Yo se lo tiro

Concluding Examples

1. We tell you everything Te decimos todo

2. (You-formal) Sell them food! ¡(Ud.) Véndales comida!

3. She wants to bring you-all something to drink Ella quiere traerles algo para tomar

4. (You) Buy it for her! ¡(Tú) Cómpraselo!

5. (You) Don’t tell me anything, I don’t want to listen to you¡ ¡(Tú) No me digas nada, no quiero escucharte¡

6. I am telling (In Spanish: I say) you-all only one thing: clean it for me! Les digo sólo una cosa: ¡límpienmela!