Spanish Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns

Putting Direct & Indirect Object Pronouns Together.

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Now that you’ve learned about direct and indirect object pronouns, what happens if you want to use them together?

The sentences that follow are examples of both object pronouns being used together. The direct object is in bold, while the indirect object is underlined.

• Does Hector give them to you? - ¿Te los da Héctor?
• They ask us for it. - Ellos nos lo piden.
• I need to give it to him tomorrow. - Necesito dárselo mañana.

To refresh your memory, the direct and indirect object pronouns that you will use in combination are as follows:

When you combine the direct and indirect object pronouns in a sentence, you have two options.

• You can put the indirect object pronoun, followed by the direct object pronoun, as two separate words before the verb.
- such as, “Te lo voy a dar.” I’m going to give it to you.

• You can attach the indirect object pronoun and the direct object pronoun onto the end of an infinitive.
- such as, “Voy a dártelo.”             I’m going to give it to you.

(Note that you must add an accent on the infinitive ending to preserve the correct pronunciation.)

Which Object Comes First?

In English, you can switch the order of the direct and indirect objects. For example:

In Spanish, on the other hand, the indirect object pronoun will ALWAYS come before the direct object pronoun.

Por ejemplo:

Why Does ‘Le’ Change to ‘Se’?

As with so many irregularities in the Spanish language, the change of the indirect object pronoun in the third person makes pronunciation easier.

 

Por ejemplo:

 

To Whom? Clarifying “Se”

The word “se” can refer to any number of indirect pronouns: him, her, it, them, you…. Just as it is recommended to add a clarification after “le,” if your audience does not know to whom you are referring, it is also recommended to add a clarification after the use of “se” if the indirect object is not clear.

To do so, use “se” as you normally would, then append one of the following to the end of your sentence:

• a Ud.
• a él
• a ella
• a Uds.
• a ellos
• a ellas

Por ejemplo:

In the next section we’ll work on Prepositional Pronouns (more about Us and Them)

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