The Indirect Object in Spanish
n Spanish, there are verbs that can convey information by themselves, without the need for complements. Verbs related to the weather, for example, don't even accept a grammatical subject. That is, when one says "llueve" ("it rains"), they are conveying a message to anyone who, through their knowledge of the world, understands what rain is. And unlike other languages, such as the other three I speak, in Spanish it is impossible to add a particle that acts as a grammatical subject. Then, there are verbs that do require a grammatical subject, which, although in Spanish it can and is often omitted, is still implied. For example, when one says "lloré" ("I cried"), given the verbal inflection, we know that the verb is conjugated in the first person singular of the pretérito indefinido, which is why we can omit the subject, and we know, without adding anything else, what action the person is conveying. However, if we say "vendo" ("I sell") or "doy" ("I give") without any deictic element, that is, without any context that would allow it, we wouldn't be conveying any message, since these verbs, known as transitive verbs, do require complements to convey a message. In this article, we will look at what the indirect object is in Spanish, its use, and the indirect object pronouns.
If you’re not sure what a direct object is, you can read about it here, and I recommend doing so because understanding the indirect object requires first understanding the direct object. With that said, let’s get straight to the point.
The indirect object of a verb is the one who receives the verbal action, unlike the direct object, which is the one that undergoes it. For example, in yo le vendo mi auto a mi vecina (“I sell my car to my neighbor”), yo is the grammatical subject because it performs the action of selling, mi auto is the direct object because it undergoes the action of being sold, and mi vecina is the indirect object because she receives the product of the sale. Following the logic of Spanish grammar, for a verb to take an indirect object, it must also be able to take a direct object. In other words, if a verb accepts only one object, that object will be direct. However, as we will see, there are some exceptions, variations, or errors in usage, especially when it comes to pronouns. Let’s look at examples of different types of verbs.
Nieva: (“It snows”): I convey a message without a subject or objects.
Yo dormí: (“I slept”): The grammatical subject yo is necessary, as it is the one who performs the action. However, as we mentioned earlier, it can often be omitted.
Yo bebo café(“I drink coffee”): Here, we again have a grammatical subject and also a direct object, café, which undergoes the action of being drunk.
Yo le regalo flores a mi hermana(“I give flowers to my sister”): Here, we have a grammatical subject, a direct object, flores, which undergoes the action of being given, and mi hermana, the indirect object, who receives the flowers.
Indirect Object Pronouns
Indirect object pronouns are used to replace the indirect object to avoid unnecessary repetition. However, as seen in the previous examples and as we will explore further, redundancy is very common in Spanish in this case. This means that sentences often include both the indirect object pronoun and the indirect object itself when it is not replaced by the pronoun. Let’s take a look at these pronouns.
Substitution of the Indirect Object with the Object Pronoun
When the context allows it and to avoid unnecessary repetition, it is possible to replace the indirect object with its pronoun. Let’s see some examples.
Luis envió una carta a su madre. Luis le envió una carta. Luis sent a letter to her mother. Luis sent her a letter.
Ellos explicaron las reglas a los jugadores. Ellos les explicaron las reglas. They explained the rules to the players. They explained the rules to them.
The indirect object pronoun agrees in number with the indirect object and never with the direct object. Pay attention to this, as it is a detail that often causes confusion.
Yo le dije muchos secretos a él. (“I told him many secrets”).
Yo les dije un secreto a ellos. (“I told them a secret”).
As we mentioned earlier, while it is possible to introduce an indirect object without being redundant with the pronoun, it is very common for redundancy to occur. In other words, in sentences where the indirect object is not replaced with its pronoun, both the indirect object and the pronoun can appear. For example, it is common to see Luis le envió una carta a su madre instead of Luis envió una carta a su madre, or Ellos les explicaron las reglas a los jugadores. For the same reason, “le” appears in the first example we saw: yo le vendo el auto a mi vecina.
The preposition a is used in all cases where the direct object is explicitly mentioned in the sentence. It is not the preposition a for people and close animals like in other cases.
Le regalé flores a mi hermana. I gave flowers to my sister.
Le doy comida a la gata. I give food to the cat.
Le lavé las ventanas al auto. I washed the car’s windows.
Al is, in this case, the contraction of a + él. Here you can read more about this topic.
Position in the Sentence.
When the indirect object is explicitly mentioned in the sentence, that is, when it is not replaced by an indirect object pronoun, its most common position in the sentence is after the direct object and, as mentioned earlier, introduced by the preposition a.
Le regalé flores (direct object) a mi hermana (indirect object).
For emphasis reasons, the word order can change. Both A mi hermana le regalé flores, Flores le regalé a mi hermana, or Flores a mi hermana le regalé are possible options. If we include the personal pronoun yo in this example, we would have even more options. This will be material for another article: the meaning of all these possible variants, although roughly the same, has subtle subjective differences that will require a detailed explanation. This is because, in addition to having differences in themselves, the same variant can have different subjective meanings depending on the intonation of the sentence.
The position of indirect object pronouns when they replace the indirect object in the sentence is much more systematic from a grammatical point of view, and follows these rules.
When the verb is conjugated in simple tenses, the indirect object pronoun is placed before the verb:
Me dio un consejo. He/She gave me a piece of advice
Te compré un regalo. I bought you a gift.
When there is a conjugated verb followed by an infinitive or gerund, the pronoun can be placed before the main verb or attached to the infinitive/gerund:
Te voy a explicar la lección. / Voy a explicarte la lección. I am going to explain the lesson to you
Le están enviando una carta. / Están enviándole una carta. They are sending him/her a letter
In this case, both options are correct, and there is no difference in meaning. It is unlikely that anyone could explain why they chose one option over the other in a specific instance. There is probably a regional variation, stylistic choice, etc., when selecting one option, but both are equally valid and used in both spoken and written language.
When the verb is in the affirmative imperative, the pronoun is attached to the end of the verb:
Cómprale flores. Buy him/her flowers.
Dame mi dinero. Give me my money.
When the verb is in the negative imperative, the pronoun goes before the verb:
No le digas nada. Don’t tell him/her anything.
No les regales las entradas al concierto. Don’t give them the concert tickets.
Leísmo, loísmo y laísmo.
In some Spanish-speaking regions, le is used instead of lo or la to refer to the direct object. Although this usage is accepted in some areas, the normative form and, from my humble point of view, the logic of the grammar of the language, recommend using lo and la for the direct object and le for the indirect object.
Ejemplo de leísmo: Le vi en la tienda (“I saw him in the store”) en lugar de Lo vi en la tienda. Although this usage is quite widespread, especially in some regions of Spain, it is grammatically unnecessary. Additionally, the verb ver can take two objects: Vi a Juan (“I saw Juan”), where Juan is the direct object of the verb ver, can be turned into Lo vi (“I saw him”). Meanwhile, if I want to express that what I saw were Juan’s hands, Vi las manos de Juan (“I saw Juan’s hands”) becomes… Le vi las manos (a Juan). In this case, following the logic of Spanish grammar, the use of the pronoun le is correct, since the direct object of the sentence is las manos and the indirect object is Juan. That is, if we say Le vi en la tienda, a direct object is missing, which is what would undergo the action of being seen in the store:
Le vi las manos en la tienda.
“Laísmo” and “loísmo” are less common and occur when “la” or “lo” are used instead of “le” for the indirect object. An example of loísmo that I have seen relatively frequently, and which occurs a lot, for example, in my variety of the language, is the one that happens with the verb robar (to steal). If someone has something stolen, the stolen object is the direct object, as it undergoes the action of being stolen, and the person from whom something is stolen is the indirect object, because they receive the action of having something stolen. So, even if we omit naming the stolen object, the correct way to say it is Le robaron (“They stole from him/her”). In this particular case, it is relatively common that if the direct object is explicitly named, the pronoun is used correctly: Le robaron la maleta (“They stole his/her suitcase”), but in the case of not explicitly mentioning it, loísmo occurs: Lo robaron. Here, following the logic, if the direct object is the one undergoing the verbal action, by saying Lo robaron we would actually be saying that they kidnapped him.
I know this is a lot of information for one article, but this topic is very important to mastering the Spanish language. Here are some exercises to practice, and in a future article on this topic, we’ll look at the subjectivity of varying the position of the indirect object in the sentence, as well as how to use direct and indirect object pronouns together, that is, how to replace both objects with pronouns. Thank you for reading! And if you have any questions, feel free to write to me.
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