Quite
often a direct and an indirect object are together in
the same sentence: I give Thomas the money. We have
the direct object (the money) and Thomas as the indirect
object (remember: I give the money to
Thomas). If one of the objects is substituted
by a pronoun we have the two possibilities:
I give him
the money. (= I give the money to
him) or
I give it to
Thomas.
However, if you substitute both we get
a sentence: I
give it to
him.
In these kind of constructions in
English the indirect object pronoun is always used with
a preposition (to).
The direct object pronoun is put first, the indirect
object pronoun with the preposition is directly put
after the direct object pronoun.
I give it
(direct object) to (preposition)
him (indirect object).
In Spanish they are just put together
without a preposition. The indirect object pronoun is
always first, then the direct object pronoun (meaning
the sequence is exactly the other way round compared
to English - easy to remember, isn't it?)
| when
le or les meets lo, los, la or las - le and les
become se |
As you can see the indirect
object pronoun (the one that stands in English with the
preposition to)
will become se
instead of the le.
Here again the reasons for this is that it's easier to
pronounce. Just speak aloud Le lo doy. Doesn't is sound
better and isn't it easier for the tongue to say Se lo
doy? See!
What's also to notice now
that le and les is changed to se: You can't tell whether
the object is in singular or in plural. In this situation
the only way to give a clear picture is to add the indirect
object with a.
(Almost like in English!)
|
