#indirect objects

[spanishskulduggery]

Hello:

I feel so blessed to discover your blog. I need guidance understanding which verbs usually require the indirect pronouns " le & les" in the context outside of "gustar-like" verbs. I am pretty good to associate "decir" and "dar" with the pronouns but can't seem to remember any others.

In the context of indirect objects, usually you're talking about verbs that require a recipient

They aren't acted upon directly (usually) as that requires direct objects, but indirect objects often involve things like sending, giving, speaking, taking from, granting... things like that

For example escribir una carta "to write a letter" uses una carta as the direct object; escribir(le) una carta (a alguien) is then "to write a letter (to someone)"

The person who receives the action/result of the verb [writing a letter] is your indirect object there

I try to say indirect objects are often "to whom or for whom something is done"

Here are some verbs that usually take indirect objects (contextually)

dar(le) = to give to someone

dar(le) de comer = to give someone food, to feed someone

dar(le) la palabra = to give someone (your) word, to promise

regalar(le) = to give to someone as a gift, to gift someone

decir(le) = to say to someone contar(le) = to tell to someone / to recount to someone [like telling a story]

comprar(le) = to buy for someone

vender(le) = to sell to someone

escribir(le) = to write to someone

leer(le) = to read to someone

cantar(le) = to sing for/to someone

enseñar(le) = to teach someone / to show someone, to point out to someone

mostrar(le) = to show someone

cocinar(le) = to cook for someone

prometer(le) = to promise (to) someone

jurar(le) = to swear/make an oath to someone

proveer(le) = to provide to someone

hablar(le) = to talk to someone

enviar(le) = to send to someone mandar(le) = to send to someone

aconsejar(le) = to advise to someone

sugerir(le) = to suggest to someone

recomendar(le) = to recommend to someone

pedir(le) = to request of someone / to ask someone for a favor

exigir(le) = to make a demand of someone

otorgar(le) = to grant/bestow to someone

preparar(le) = to prepare/make for someone

saludar(le) = to greet someone, to say hello

dar(le) las gracias = to give thanks to someone agradecer(le) = to give thanks to someone

traer(le) = to bring to someone llevar(le) = to bring to someone

tirar(le) = to throw to someone

lanzar(le) = to throw at someone [also lanzar(le) un hechizo is like "to cast a spell on someone"]

disparar(le) = to shoot (at) someone

echar(le) = to throw to someone [also regionally used for other expressions] echar(le) de menos = to miss someone [Spain] echar(le) la culpa = to blame someone

extrañar(le) = to miss someone [Latin America; occasionally it means "to cause bewilderment" or "to surprise"]

caer(le) bien = to like someone caer(le) mal = to dislike someone [sort of like "to rub some

Again, many of these could be either direct or indirect object verbs; like "bringing something to someone" is a mix of both

Also! Many verbs implying emotions will use indirect objects; they're a bit similar to gustar type verbs in that sense since it's "to inspire (an emotion) in someone else":

sorprender(le) = to cause surprise

agradar(le) = to make someone happy, to gladden

entristecer(le) = to make someone sad, to sadden

But you can also use poner with this - le pone triste "it makes him/her sad" for example. Usually with emotions it's reflexive "to get sad" being ponerse triste, but you can sometimes see it with indirect objects like "it makes them sad"

This all depends on the situation, usually these verbs have a direct object and an indirect object... like dar las gracias "to give thanks" has las gracias as the direct object, but then who you're thanking is indirect

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Also worth pointing out that depending on where you live, le might be used in certain situations that other countries wouldn't use it in

As an example ayudar "to help" often takes direct objects, but it could be indirect too... it's sort of like if you're saying "to help" vs. "to lend aid" since it's understood what you mean but certain places/countries will use direct objects or indirect objects

Very very similar is conocer "to know" or "to meet" - depending on where you are you might say es un placer conocerlo / es un placer conocerla "it's a pleasure to meet you"... OR es un placer conocerle "it's a pleasure to meet you"

This is assuming you're using polite usted

Informal tú would be te ayudo or es un placer conocerte and because the te is both a direct and indirect object it doesn't matter whether it's direct or indirect because it's the same te

This sort of linguistic debate of leísmo [the use of le when direct objects are people] is a common one in Spanish, but in general Spain tends to use le for direct objects that are people to afford them personhood... and most places in Latin America tend toward loísmo which uses traditional direct objects so as to not confuse the direct/indirect cases

But really this is academic and even Spanish-speakers aren't in total agreement, and it only applies to times when the direct object is a person [and again it is a DIRECT object]... this doesn't count for the verbs like those above which take indirect objects when something is to/for them

[You can also probably find more info if you look up verbos con el complemento indirecto or looking up el dativo which is linguistics code for indirect objects]

[spanishboone]

20 verbs/phrases that REQUIRE  indirect object pronouns

Sometimes verbs require nothing but a simple conjugation to express  a point but sometimes those ideas don’t get conveyed without the usage of a indirect object pronoun (Me, te, le, nos, os, les). We can think of these as “gustar” verbs in functionality because when we first learned gustar, it was a weird and no other verbs required a different object to do something to us which, when we translate it, we say that we did it!

Here’s a list of some verbs and expressions that use this “gustar” type set up.

gustarle algo/alguien a algo/alguien - to like(someone romantically)

encantarle - to really like/love (romantically or not)

caerle bien - to like some (as a person)/to make a good impression

caerle mal - to not like someone (as a person)/to make a bad impression

dolerle - to hurt (physically/emotionally)

convenirle - to be suitable/advisable

faltarle - to be lacking

preocuparle - to worry someone 

costarle - to be difficult or challenging/to cost

quedarle - to fit (as in a clothing size)/to remain

sobrarle- to be leftover

importarle - to care (be of importance)

molestarle/fastidiarle - to bother/annoy

parecerle - to seem/to appear to be

pegarle- to hit something ****NOTE: pegarlo (with a direct object pronoun) means to paste****

hacerle falta- to miss someone ****NOTE: hacer falta (without an indirect object pronoun) means to  be necessary ****

volverle loco - to drive someone crazy

quedarle bien/mal- to suit well/bad

darle asco a algiuen - to digust

darle cosa a alguien - to creep out

Also, check out my new search bar on my page if you want to look for any type of post that may interest you.

[spanishskulduggery]

Hola, I wanted to ask for a clarification on something. I think I confused myself with reflexive verbs and gustar and verbs like it. Reflexive verbs use the "me/te/se/nos/os/se", but gustar uses "me/te/le..." etc. Because a reflexive verb is usually an action being done to yourself, we use se. But why don't we use se for gustar? Or le/les for reflexive verbs? I'm a little lost trying to understand why they're different.

What you're asking is the difference between a reflexive and an indirect object; and I'm going to start with a reflexive because I find them easier to understand

A reflexive is when the subject and object are the same - something one does to themselves (or in reciprocal/plural, something multiple people do to each other)

The basic example that I always like to use is lavar "to wash" - you can lavar la ropa "wash clothes", and lavar a alguien "to wash someone", and in this case the "clothes" and "someone" are considered direct objects [things that receive the action of the verb, as in, the clothes are what is getting washed etc]

A reflexive would be lavarse "to wash oneself"

You have lavarse las manos "to wash one's hands", literally "to wash oneself the hands" - the idea being that it is yourself, the hands are just part of you and obviously part of you (this is a thing that happens with many body parts where ownership is considered implied) - so you are the one washing and the one being washed. That's reflexive. And what is being washed is "the hands", which are the direct object here

Please note - there are other ways reflexives are used, and specifically times se shows up that aren't truly reflexive, and I don't want to confuse you or bog you down with more information than you need but just be aware there's the basic true "reflexive", and then also there are times when se shows up for seemingly no reason and it's just grammatical quirks of Spanish

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An indirect object (also called dative in linguistics and languages with case systems, like German, Latin, Russian etc) is to mark who is the intended recipient of an action, who is benefiting, who something is done for

"to whom or for whom something is done"... that's why it's indirect

[Note: "who" is often a subject, "whom" is an object; if you take German you'll see this more but it's one of the carry-overs from German just in English as far as "whom" taking an extra letter]

You do something to something (directly), but it's for someone else... so that's why it's indirect

A common example I use is mandar la carta "to send a letter", the one "sending" is the subject, the "letter" is the object... but who is it going to?

le mando la carta "I am sending the letter to him/her"... where the "him/her" is receiving the action of sending the letter but not being acted upon directly... an indirect object

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Here's where we get into the double-edged sword of gustar

On the one hand, super common absolutely everywhere, needs to be taught

On the other hand, it is often taught as "to like" which is basically true but becomes confusing for people later on when they come across the indirect objects. Teachers do their best to mitigate it but it's kinda unavoidable

gustar is NOT "to like" when used with indirect objects; it is "to be pleasant to" or "to be pleasing to"

When you say me gusta el libro "I like the book" what you're actually saying is "the book is pleasing to me"; and me gustan los libros "I like the books" is "the books are pleasing to me"

This is why gustar is showing up in 3rd person - they're the true "subject" and that's why gustar is often conjugated like this

This also extends to gustar-like verbs like fascinar, apetecer, interesar, importar, preocupar, and so on...

As in me sorprende is "it surprises me", literally "it evokes surprise in me"

...

To be clear here - a reflexive is when the subject and object are the same

Direct object and indirect object phrases are not phrased like that. Direct objects have one subject acting on something [mandar la carta for example], and indirect objects mention who benefits from something being acted upon [mandar(le) la carta (a alguien)]

A reflexive would have you doing the action and being the recipient, so in theory you could say me mando una carta "I send myself a letter"

Many verbs can be reflexive if they apply to the subject; if they apply to someone else, they're often direct or indirect objects

While not super common, me gusto can be used as "I like myself"

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Also just to be clear about the object pronouns:

Direct objects: me, te, lo/la, los/las, nos, os

Indirect objects: me, te, le, les, nos, os

Reflexives: me, te, se, nos, os

For yo, tú, nosotros/nosotras, and vosotros/vosotras the objects are the exact same

Which means that ~in general but not always~ you don't have to worry too much about whether a sentence is technically direct or indirect

The big issue is 3rd person (+ usted/ustedes which conjugate like 3rd person) - whether it's going to be lo or le or se

In general though it will depend on the context of the sentence. As an example alegrar "to make someone happy" uses indirect objects, while alegrarse is "to become happy"

Whether you're saying le alegra "it makes them happy" or se alegra "he/she is happy/they are glad"

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Also for more information:

Anatomy of Spanish: Direct Objects

Anatomy of Spanish: Indirect Objects

[spanishskulduggery]

Hi, what's the difference between these sentences?

The first sentence is just the indirect object

The second is the indirect + direct object

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First sentence reads like "I'm giving the book to my mother". Second one is "I'm giving it to my mother"

The indirect objects [me, te, le, les, nos, os] show who the recipient is; it's le for mi madre

The direct objects [me, te, lo/la, los/las, nos, os] show the actual object - which would be the libro. In the second sentence, lo takes the place of el libro so it's an "it"

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When you combine indirect and direct objects, indirect goes first:

Me compras las flores. = You're buying me flowers. Me las compras. = You're buying me them. Te mando el paquete. = I'm sending you the package. Te lo mando. = I'm sending it to you.

...

When it's le/les + lo/la/los/las the indirect object [le/les] turns into se

This is because saying "les lo" or something would be super awkward, and in some places lelo/a means "silly" or "stupid"

So...

Le mando el paquete. = I'm sending him/her the package. Se lo mando. = I'm sending it to them. Le mando la carta. = I'm sending/him/her the letter. Se la mando. = I'm sending it to them.

And then le mando los paquetes -> se los mando. Or le mando las cartas -> se las mando

...The a (alguien) just shows the recipient, since se could refer to él, ella, usted, ellos, ellas, ustedes

If you want here's my post on How Indirect Objects Work in Spanish

[spanishskulduggery]

I’ve seen your anon answer of explanations for se, but this instance is tripping me up. In ‘esto se lo dedico’ I understand the meaning close to ‘this one’s for you’ and such, but could you please explain what is the se doing here, what is its function?

Ah, okay this is a weird special case you're seeing

That isn't a typical se, it's a replacement for an indirect object

When you have indirect objects [me, te, le, les, nos, os] + direct objects [me, te, lo / la, los / las, nos, os] you have a small rule when you have 3rd person + 3rd person

...

In other words, if you're trying to write le or les + lo, la, los, las the indirect object will change to se. This is because le/les sounds really strange with lo, la, los, las... and a word like lelo/a for example means "silly". It has something to do with a "this would sound weird, so we changed it" tendency in Spanish:

Le dedico el poema. = I dedicate the poem to him/her/usted. Les dedico el poema. = I dedicate the poem to them/ustedes. Lo dedico. = I dedicate it. Se lo dedico (a él, a ella, a usted). = I dedicate it to them [singular]. Se lo dedico (a ellos, a ellas, a ustedes). = I dedicate it to them [plural].

Similarly on a radio, if you ask for a song the expression is poner la canción "to put on a song", so you might see someone say se la pongo which is roughly "here you go", but more literally "I'm putting it on for you (usted)"... but you could also see te la pongo normally "for you" informal

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In summation:

Your direct object is the thing, and the indirect object is to whom/for whom... so if both are 3rd person, that's when you see the se take over for indirect objects

The le/les and indirect objects takes the place of 3rd person singular and plural respectively, and in English we usually use "them" unless we know specifically "to whom"; in Spanish it can be the same

Because the se could be for literally any 3rd person + direct object, you might see the recipient specified with a (alguien)

As an example:

Se lo dedico a mi padre. = I dedicate it to my father. Se lo dedico a mis padres. = I dedicate it to my parents.

The a (alguien) is optional, only preferred if it's going to be ambiguous. Without context you'd understand it as "I dedicate it to them" where just like English that se as "them" in this case could be singular or plural

Similarly with that poner la canción example... se la pongo could be "I'm playing it for them" singular or even a "you" (usted), or it could be "I'm playing it for them" plural or "you all" (ustedes).

For any other person - me, te, nos, os - there's no change

Me lo dedicó. = He/She dedicated it to me. Te la pongo. = I'll play it for you. Nos manda el paquete. = He/She is sending us the package. Nos lo manda. = He/She is sending it to us. Os digo que... = I'm telling you all that... [os = vosotros/vosotras which is Spain, specifically] Os lo dije. = I told you all. / That's what I told you. / I told you (all) so.

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Additional information:

Anatomy of Spanish: Indirect Objects

[spanishskulduggery]

How can I tell when something like nos is a direct object or an indirect object? Aren't they the same?

I think I understand what you're saying. To answer your question, yes and no. They're the same word - nos, but they technically equate to different things linguistically

If you're asking if it really makes a difference, it doesn't in the sense that it's always nos for "us", but they are ~ technically ~ different fulfilling different functions.

Your biggest struggles are going to be 3rd person because they don't use the same object pronouns. If you're trying to tell the difference between "cases", it's going to depend on the actual verb you're using

A quick example:

Nos llevaron al aeropuerto. = They brought us to the airport. [direct object "us"] Nos enviaron las flores. = They sent us flowers. [indirect object "us"]

And not to mention reflexives [me, te, se, nos, os], where you might see nos casamos "we got married" / "we're getting married" [casamos is the present tense nosotros and also preterite nosotros, so it could read as either depending on context]

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Direct objects, or the "accusative case" if you're studying languages with case systems, are when you act on someone/something "directly" - they are things you do things to. What makes this more confusing is that there are times when people will use the indirect objects for 3rd person [le, les] instead of the direct objects [lo, la, los, las] as a matter of politeness

Direct objects are me, te, lo, la, los, las, nos, os

As an example: es un placer conocerlo "it's nice to meet you" is usted masculine, es un placer conocerla "it's nice to meet you" usted feminine, or es un placer conocerle "it's nice to meet you" but more formal and unisex

Verbs that frequently take direct objects (with people) are ones like juzgar "to judge", pegar "to hit/punch", patear "to kick", asesinar "to murder", castigar "to punish", lastimar "to hurt", ver "to see", nombrar "to nominate", llevar "to take/carry/give someone a ride", querer "to love", amar "to love", ayudar "to help", buscar "to look for", or encontrar "to find"

This isn't all of them of course, and depending on circumstances you might see a more formal le/les used instead of the direct objects

Because of the ambiguous nature of direct objects with people taking possibly indirect object pronouns, people are generally more forgiving than you'd think... it might sound a bit off or too formal at times, but it's not like you're not getting your point across

If you're interested in the actual linguistics of it, you can read up on leísmo but it's not very exciting literature. In laymen's terms, some verbs could take either, you kinda just sound more polite; in my textbooks they included both options

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Indirect objects are MUCH easier to spot because they usually come with a direct object in the sentence

Indirect objects - or dative case - are "to whom" or "for whom" something is done. Because of the "indirectness" you're often going to see these with things being brought to someone or taken away from someone in some sense - dar "to give" and quitar "to remove" can both take indirect objects

Indirect objects are me, te, le, les, nos, os

They include all of the gustar type verbs [though with some caveats*], and verbs like mandar "to send/order", enviar "to send", exigir "to demand", preguntar "to question", hablar "to speak to (someone)", escribir "to write to (someone)", ofrecer "to offer", servir "to serve", traer "to bring to (someone)", pedir "to request", sugerir "to suggest", and others

*Note: It depends on the functions of the verbs. A verb like encantar for example usually takes indirect objects like le encanta "he/she really likes it". It could also take a direct object but the meaning is different, encantar algo / a alguien means "to enchant" or "to cast a spell on someone" literally, so depending on how you mean it and how much "agency" someone has you could make the case for it to be direct or indirect

...And remember, indirect objects often have a direct object there too so you can usually figure out what you're dealing with

That first example: nos enviaron las flores "they sent us flowers"; the nos shows the recipient [indirect object], but the thing actually receiving the action of being "sent" is "flowers" so it's the direct object

In other words:

Nos enviaron... = They sent to us... Enviaron flores. = They sent flowers. Las enviaron. = They sent them. [direct object] Nos enviaron las flores. = They sent us the flowers. Nos las enviaron. = They sent them to us.

In a sentence like nos las enviaron [which is a bit awkward but not impossible], the las is there for las flores as the direct object pronoun, while nos "to us" implies the recipient

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Luckily though, you don't see direct and indirect objects together when they're me + te or something like that... sort of like me llevaron a ti "they brought me to you", is how you'd word something like that

At least when it comes to indirect objects, Spanish likes things to be very easily understood

[spanishskulduggery]

Can you give a high level explanation of when you use le, lo, se, nos ?

I struggle with that.

They're different object pronouns

Object pronouns are used when you're using pronouns - "I", "you", "he", "she" etc. - but you're using them as objects instead, meaning they're recipients of actions

In English this is like when "I" turns to "me", "he" to "him", "she" to "her", "we" to "us"

Primarily there are two sets of object pronouns you need to watch out for - direct objects and indirect objects

The se most often comes up with reflexives so I will also explain them, but you're mostly mentioning direct and indirect objects there

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Direct objects, also called "accusative" in languages with case systems, is used when objects are acted upon directly. They receive the action or result of a verb

As an example "I see it": where "I" is the subject", "see" is the verb", and "it" is the object... in other words, what is being seen

Direct object pronouns are like this:

yo -> me tú -> te él -> lo ella -> la ellos -> los ellas -> las nosotros/nosotras -> nos vosotros/vosotras -> os*

*vosotros is only used in Spain

Note: usted will be lo or la depending on the gender of the "you" (formal) you're speaking to... similar to ustedes "you all"

Nouns (an "it" if you will) will take lo or la or los or las depending on their gender

They're the same as "he" or "she" turning to lo and la, just without personhood

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Indirect objects are known as dative case in languages with case systems

These are to show recipients of actions - "to whom or for whom" something is done

You first see these with gustar and verbs like it

For the most part, the object pronouns are the exact same as direct objects

yo -> me tú -> te él, ella, usted -> le ellos, ellas, ustedes -> les nosotros/nosotras -> nos vosotros/vosotras -> os

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Reflexive verbs (or pronomials, which just means "verbs/expressions that use reflexive object pronouns) are a special case here

In general, a reflexive verb shows up in a case where "a subject and object are the same"

The classic example I use is lavar "to wash" where you can wash many different things... but lavarse "to wash oneself"

yo -> me tú -> te él, ella, usted -> se ellos, ellas, ustedes -> se nosotros, nosotras -> nos vosotros/vosotras -> os

You'll notice that for all of third person, singular or plural, is all se

The difference will be the verbs... so for example se levanta "he/she stands up" / "you [usted] stand up"

But se levantan "they stand up" or "you all stand up"

All that changes is the verb form for singular/plural, se remains the same. If you're trying to be specific, you include the pronoun to differentiate things like:

La abuela se despierta a las 6, el padre se despierta a las 7, y los hijos se despiertan a las 8. = The grandmother wakes up at 6, the father wakes up at 7, and the children wake up at 8.

Since they're all different subjects it makes more sense to specify things with the actual subjects... but you'll notice the se remains the same.

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Important Note: se has other functions as well; generally it always means 3rd person, but there are going to be times when you see "reflexive object pronouns" but it's not a true reflexive

This is why I specified that they're called "pronomials" in technical jargon because the idea of a "reflexive" means "someone does something that REFLECTS back on them"

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Addendum: As you can see, in MOST cases the objects are the same regardless of which three it is

me golpeas "you're hitting me", me gusta "I like it" [lit. "it pleases me"], or me levanto "I stand up / I get up" all use the same object

They're different linguistically, but me, te, nos, os all share the same objects regardless of the case so it is less to remember

3rd person (and usted/ustedes) will always be the confusing part for things

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I would also recommend:

Anatomy of Spanish: Direct Objects

Anatomy of Spanish: Indirect Objects

Especially the one on Indirect Objects because there's another specific use of se that I bring up that is only used when combining indirect and direct objects

[spanishskulduggery]

Do you think you could try to explain why you use le with certain verbs?

like

Le temo a las alturas

😭😭

Gracias

temer is a weird one because it's more formal than tener miedo "to be afraid"

It's even more weird because it doesn't seem to follow normal indirect object rules.

Technically it should be les because alturas is plural but no one would write it that way

In my experience temer frequently (always?) takes le regardless of the plurality/singularity... no le temo a la oscuridad "I'm not afraid of the dark" and no le temo a las arañas "I'm not afraid of spiders"

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So it's just temer being weird

I don't believe it's technically grammatically correct (unless I'm misunderstanding what the le refers to), but it is pretty much the standard... and I think it's just for temer

Maybe it's the concept or the idea doesn't cause fear which is why it's singular? I'm not sure

Either way, it's an exception to basic indirect object rules:

Anatomy of Spanish: Indirect Objects

~

Side Note: temer can also come up as temerse like me temo que no hay tiempo "I'm afraid there's no time"; usually temerse is used in a conversational sense like me temo que sí "I'm afraid so" or me temo que no "I'm afraid not".... not an actual fear if that makes sense