Spanish/Lesson 6

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Grammar - Object Pronouns

Direct Object Pronouns

While the subject of a sentence initiates an action (the verb), the direct object is the one that is affected by the action. A direct object pronoun is used to refer to the direct object of a previous sentence:

El chico come la manzana. Él la come.

The boy eats the apple . He eats it .

The following table shows the six types of direct object pronouns:

Subject	Object	English
yo	me	me
tú	te	you
él	lo	him/it
ella	la	her/it
usted	lo/la	you
nosotros	nos	us, we
vosotros	os	you (plural)
ellos	los	them (masculine)
ellas	las	them (feminine)
ustedes	los/las	you

In spanish tú is used for informal situations, and usted must be used when a formal treatment is needed.

Note: In Spain, le and les are used as the masculine direct object pronoun only when referring to people. If the antecedent of a direct object is masculine but non-human, lo or los are used instead. In most other Spanish speaking places, lo and los are used instead of le and les.

Indirect Object Pronouns

An indirect object is an object that would be asked for with To whom...? or From whom...?. It is called indirect because it occurs usually together with a direct object which is affected directly by the action:

La mujer da una manzana al chico. La mujer le da una manzana.

The woman gives an apple to the boy . The woman gives him an apple.

The apple is given by the woman (direct). The boy gets the given apple (indirect - depends on the apple being given).

Here is a table with all of the Spanish indirect object pronouns:

Subject	Indirect Object	English
yo	me	to/from me
tú	te	to/from you
él/ella/usted	le	to/from him/her/you
nosotros/nosotras	nos	to/from us
vosotros/vosotras	os	to/from you
ellos/ellas/ustedes	les	to/from them/you

Position Of Object Pronouns (Double Object Pronouns)

So far we have only seen sentences with one object pronoun. If there is both a direct and an indirect object pronoun, the indirect pronoun usually comes first:

Te compro una bicicleta . Te la compro.

I buy you a bike. I buy it for you.

Also, when both object pronouns are in the third person (either singular or plural), the indirect pronoun changes from le/les to se:

El profesor le da unos libros. El profesor se los da.

The professor gives her the books. The professor gives them to her.

In sentences that contain an infinitive or a participle, the object pronoun may be either placed before the conjugated verb or it maybe attached to the infinitive/participle:

Carmen puede cantar el himno nacional. Carmen puede cantarlo. or Carmen lo puede cantar.

Carmen can sing the national anthem. Carmen can sing it.

It is possible to have the two rules above working at the same time: A combination of direct and indirect pronouns that is attached to an infinitive/participle:

Quiero mostrarte una casa. Quiero mostrártela.

I want to show you a house. I want to show it to you.

Exercise:Object Pronouns

Vocabulario (Vocabulary) - La comida (Food)

Las comidas	The meals
el desayuno	breakfast
desayunar, tomar el desayuno	to have breakfast
el almuerzo	lunch
almorzar	to have lunch
la cena	dinner
cenar	to have dinner
la comida	food, meal
comer	to eat

  In Spain and some other countries, comida is the midday meal.

Las comidas	The meals
el desayuno	breakfast
desayunar, tomar el desayuno	to have breakfast
la comida (el almuerzo)	lunch, main meal
comer (almorzar)	to eat, to lunch
la cena	dinner
cenar	to have dinner

  In other countries, for example Chile, comida is the last meal in the day.

Las comidas	The meals
el desayuno	breakfast
desayunar, tomar el desayuno	to have breakfast
el almuerzo	lunch
almorzar	to have lunch
la comida (la cena)	dinner, main meal
comer (cenar)	to eat, to have dinner

Instead of saying desayuno, comida y cena (Spain) or desayuno, almuerzo y comida (Chile, Colombia), it's safer to say desayuno, almuerzo y cena.  

The word comida has several meanings

• food Me gusta la comida mexicana
• meal El desayuno es la principal comida del día
• lunch La comida es a las 2 PM
• dinner La comida es a las 9 PM

 

Las Frutas	Fruits
la banana	banana
el plátano (Spain, Chile, Perú)
el banano
la cereza	cherry
la guinda
el damasco	apricot
el albaricoque (Spain)
el durazno (Sp. Am)	peach
el melocotón (Spain)
la fresa	strawberry
la frutilla (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay)
el kiwi	kiwi fruit
la manzana	apple
la naranja	orange
la pera	pear
la piña	pineapple
el ananá
la uva	grape
la ciruela	plum

 

Las Verduras	Vegetables
la cebolla	onion
la lechuga	lettuce
la espinaca	spinach
la papa (Sp. Am.)	potato
la patata (Spain)
el pepino	cucumber
el aguacate	avocado
la palta (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay)
el tomate	tomato
la zanahoria	carrot
el zapallo (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay)	pumpkin, squash
la calabaza (Spain)
los porotos (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay)	beans
los frijoles (Mexico)
las alubias (Spain)
las caraotas

Note that due to the pervasive influence of English, in many supermarkets there is a section called Vegetales instead of Verduras. They mistranslate vegetable, forgetting that this is not the same as English vegetal (relating to plants).

• Legumbres means the same thing as verduras (vegetables).

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