Introduction
| pronoun | meaning |
|---|---|
| me | to me, for me |
| te | to you, for you |
| le | to him, to her, to you (formal) |
| nos | to us, for us |
| os | to you all (Spain) |
| les | to them, to you all |
An indirect object pronoun shows who receives something or who the action is for. It often goes with verbs like dar, decir, enviar, preguntar, explicar and gustar.
- Le escribo una carta.I'm writing him a letter.
- ¿Me das tu número?Will you give me your number?
- Nos explicó el problema.She explained the problem to us.
Le and Les with the Noun
Spanish usually keeps le or les even when the person is also named. It sounds much more natural this way.
- Le di el libro a María.I gave María the book.
- Les compré regalos a mis padres.I bought my parents presents.
Di el libro a María is grammatical, but in everyday speech the version with le is far more common.
With a pronoun after a, the le is required: Le hablé a ella, never Hablé a ella.
Unplanned Events with Se
Se + indirect object pronoun + verb describes accidents: things that happen to you rather than things you do. The verb agrees with the thing, not the person.
se+me/te/le/nos/os/les+verb+thing
- Se me olvidaron las llaves.I forgot my keys.
- Se le rompió el vaso.He broke the glass by accident.
- Se nos acabó el café.We ran out of coffee.
- Se me olvidó las llaves.Se me olvidaron las llaves.the verb agrees with las llaves
Practice
___ escribo una carta a mi abuela.
___ compré regalos a mis amigos.
¿___ explicas la lección? (to us)
Which sentence sounds most natural?
___ hablé a ella ayer.
Se me ___ las llaves.
Se ___ rompió el vaso. (to him, by accident)
Se nos acabó la leche means ___.
¿Qué ___ dijiste a tu madre?
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