#indirect objects

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

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

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

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"

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

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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:

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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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

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

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