Direct object pronouns in Spanish are little phrases that change nouns so that you don’t sound repetitive and unnatural.
Consider them like this: in English, we use direct object pronouns in sentences like “I purchased it at this time” as an alternative of “I purchased a automobile at this time.”
On this weblog put up, you’ll learn to use direct object pronouns in Spanish.
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What Is a Direct Object Pronoun in Spanish?
Spanish pronouns are phrases that substitute nouns.
For instance, should you say “I just like the apple” and also you wish to substitute “apple” for a pronoun, you’d change “apple” with the pronoun “it.” The sentence then turns into “I prefer it.”
A direct object pronoun is an object pronoun that receives the motion of the verb immediately.
For instance, while you resolve to purchase a watermelon, you’re immediately shopping for it. There’s nothing between the motion of shopping for and the watermelon itself.
You purchase a watermelon, and so you might have:
I’m shopping for a watermelon (direct object). → I’m shopping for it (direct object pronoun).
We will then infer that “to purchase” shall be adopted by a direct object or a direct object pronoun.
What Is an Object in Spanish?
An object in Spanish is the particular person or factor that receives the motion of a verb.
If you happen to resolve to write down an electronic mail to your buddy Laura, Laura shall be getting the motion of the verb. So Laura shall be an object within the sentence “I’m writing to Laura.”
Likewise, should you resolve to purchase a watermelon, the watermelon would be the factor receiving the motion of the verb, so within the sentence “I’m shopping for a watermelon,” the watermelon is an object.
Once we mix the ideas of pronoun and object, what we get is an object pronoun. An object pronoun fuses the 2 definitions we’ve simply talked about. On one hand, it substitutes a noun as a result of it’s a pronoun and alternatively, it receives the motion of the verb as a result of it’s an object.
The 8 Direct Object Pronouns in Spanish
There are eight direct object pronouns in Spanish:
| Direct Object Pronouns | |
|---|---|
| me (me) | nos (us) |
| te (you) | os (you all) |
| lo, la (him, her, it, you formal) | los, las (them, you all formal) |
Find out how to Use Direct Object Pronouns
Now that we all know how one can discover the direct object in a sentence, let’s see how we are able to substitute them for direct object pronouns.
Check out these three examples:
Tu hermano odia nosotros→ Tu hermano nos odia. (Your brother hates us.)
María quiere yo → María me quiere. (María loves me.)
Yo quiero tú/ustedes→ Te quiero/Os quiero. (I really like you/you all.)
Observe with the primary sentences, you’d positively get humorous appears to be like should you mentioned them in a dialog as a result of they want the direct object pronoun to sound pure.
Now let’s take a look at a couple of extra examples with gadgets as an alternative of individuals:
He comprado una casa. (I’ve purchased a home.)
Ayer perdí mi teléfono. (I misplaced my cellphone yesterday.)
Estoy comiendo manzanas. (I’m consuming some apples.)
Juan no lee libros. (Juan doesn’t learn books.)
For these, we have now 4 choices: lo, la, los and las.
To know which one to make use of, you solely want to take a look at the nouns and see what their gender and quantity is:
una casa (female singular)
mi teléfono (masculine singular)
manzanas (female plural)
libros (masculine plural)
Since we at all times put the pronoun in entrance of the verb, the right direct object pronoun substitutions can be:
He comprado una casa → La he comprado
Ayer perdí mi teléfono → Ayer lo perdí
Estoy comiendo manzanas → Las estoy comiendo
Juan no lee libros → Juan no los lee
Good! Now you can inform your self you’re superior since you’ve had your first observe with direct object pronouns.
Direct Object Pronouns vs. Oblique Object Pronouns in Spanish
Object pronouns are divided into direct object pronouns and oblique object pronouns.
So what precisely is the distinction between these two varieties of object pronouns?
Effectively, a direct object pronoun receives the motion of the verb immediately. Going again to the watermelon sentence, while you resolve to purchase a watermelon, you’re immediately shopping for it. There’s nothing between the motion of shopping for and the watermelon.
If you happen to say “I’m writing an electronic mail to Laura,” you aren’t writing Laura, you’re writing an electronic mail. The e-mail will then be the direct object, however Laura shall be not directly affected as a result of she shall be receiving that electronic mail, so she’s the oblique object.
If we have been to exchange all of the nouns with pronouns, we’d get one thing like the next:
I’m writing an electronic mail (direct object) to Laura (oblique object). → I’m writing it (direct object pronoun) to her (oblique object pronoun).
Find out how to Mix Oblique and Direct Object Pronouns in Spanish
What do you do when you might have a direct and oblique object pronoun in the identical sentence?
Which one goes first?
The place will we put them?
Listed here are a couple of easy guidelines you might want to observe:
1. The oblique object pronoun at all times goes earlier than the direct object pronoun
When we have now a double-object verb (a verb with a direct and an oblique object), 99% of the time the direct object shall be a factor and the oblique object shall be an individual.
We should always at all times put the particular person first, as in these examples:
Le compro caramelos a Laura. (I purchase Laura some sweets) → Le los compro a ella. (I purchase them for her.)
Les envío una carta a mis amigos. (I ship my associates a letter) → Les la envío a ellos. (I ship it to them.)
Nonetheless, earlier than utilizing the second model, learn this subsequent rule:
2. Use se when there’s a 3rd particular person direct object pronoun and a 3rd particular person oblique object pronoun
You’d do that like so:
| Unique Model | Appropriate Model |
|---|---|
| le lo | se lo |
| le la | se la |
| le los | se los |
| le las | se las |
| les lo | se lo |
| les la | se la |
| les los | se los |
| les las | se las |
Don’t get overwhelmed by this although. It’s as straightforward as at all times substituting le or les and leaving the remainder as it’s.
Taking this under consideration, the earlier examples can be corrected like this:
Le los compro a ella. → Se los compro a ella. (I purchase them for her.)
Les la envío a ellos → Se la envío a ellos. (I ship it to them.)
Right here you might have two extra examples:
Se lo digo a ellos. (I inform it to them.)
Se los robó a él. (He stole them from him.)
For extra on oblique object pronouns see our put up right here:
Direct object pronouns are tiny phrases, however they enormously affect Spanish sentences.
Not solely do you want them to specific your self with appropriate grammar, however you’ll additionally encounter them each day when chatting with native audio system.
Follow on the lookout for direct object pronouns in Spanish media, resembling TV reveals, films and music. You can too simply spot situations of them by utilizing FluentU, since all of the movies have interactive subtitles that allow you to click on on phrases you don’t know.
When you get the hold of ’em, you’ll be utilizing direct object pronouns each day, too!
Obtain:
This weblog put up is accessible as a handy and moveable PDF that you just
can take wherever.
Click on right here to get a duplicate. (Obtain)