Herramientas de la lengua
Pronombres del objeto directo e indirecto juntos
Why do you want to know this?
Combining both pronouns is quite common and we want to get it right so people can follow what we are trying to say and there are no misunderstandings.
1. A quick review
- Objects are usually nouns which come after the verb. Objects refer to people or things
- They returned the book to the teacher.
- We find direct objects by asking “who” or “what”
- They returned the book to the teacher
- What did they return? The book = Direct object
- We find the indirect object y asking “to whom” or “for whom”
- They returned the book to the teacher
- To whom did they return the book? The teacher = Indirect object
- In English Direct and Indirect Objects use the same words but in Spanish they are different for the subject pronouns he, she, you (plural) and them.
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2. How to use them together
We can use both a DOP and an IOP in the same sentence. Both are going to be placed in front of the verb, and the indirect object will always be first. For example:
- José gave the book to Juana and me = José gave it to us
- José dio un libro a Juana y a mí = José nos lo dio
3. Substituting with “se”
In order to avoid alliteration, if we have two object pronouns in a row that begin with the letter “l,” we always change the first pronoun to “se.” That means that anytime le or les is combined with lo, la, los, or las, the le or les becomes se.
- José gave the book to María = José gave it to her
- José dio un libro a María = José
lese lo dió
¡Practiquemos!
¡Hola! A continuación tienes un ejercicio para un total de 16 puntos Debes lograr al menos 12 ¡Suerte!
4. Other placements for double pronouns
We have some options for where to place the double pronouns depending on the sentence.
- If our sentence has an infinitive (ar, er, ir verb), we may choose to attach the object pronouns to it:
- No te lo quiero comprar. / No quiero comprártelo.
- I don’t want to buy it for you.
- We may also choose to attach object pronouns to present participles (ing verb):
- Te lo estoy comprando. / Estoy comprándotelo.
- I am buying it for you.
- If our sentence involves an affirmative command, we must attach our pronouns to the end of the verb. The IOP will still come before the DOP:
- ¡Cómpramelo!
- Buy it for me!
¡Practiquemos!
¡Hola! A continuación tienes un ejercicio para un total de 16 puntos Debes lograr al menos 12 ¡Suerte!
This unit “Pronombres del objeto directo e indirecto juntos” was created by Alegría Ribadeneira by combining original material, sections about prepositions from Spanish411.net, licensed CC BY-NC-SA
