FHUHS Spanish

The indirect object of a verb (el complemento indirecto) is that person or thing which answers the questions “to who? / for whom?”, or “to what? / for what?” after the verb. For example, in the sentence:

I give the ball to Juan.

the answer to “I give to whom?” is Juan, and thus Juan is the indirect object. The indirect object pronouns, then, are those pronouns which can replace the indirect object noun itself. Thus, in the above example, we might substitute “him” for “Juan”:

I give the ball to him.

Examples of other indirect object pronouns in English include “to me, to you, to her, to us, to them, etc.”

Because of the flexibility of both English and Spanish syntax, it’s very important that one determines the indirect object of a verb before determining the direct object. The above English sentence could easily be rewritten as:

I give Juan the ball.

If one were to ask the direct object questions (who? or what?) before determining the indirect object using the to whom? / for whom? questions, any resulting translation or analysis could easily be in error.

The direct object pronouns in Spanish are as follows:

Location / Placement of the Indirect Object Pronouns in Spanish

The indirect object pronouns can be placed in 4 locations in modern Spanish:

1. Immediately before a conjugated verb:

   Le doy la pelota a Juan.

2. After and attached to an infinitive:

   Voy a darle la pelota a Juan.

3. After and attached to the progressive participle:

   Estoy dándole la pelota a Juan.

4. After and attached to a direct, affirmative command:

   Dale la pelota a Juan.

Required Usage

In Spanish (as seen in the above examples), if there is an indirect object in the sentence, one must use the indirect object pronoun, even if the indirect object is stated explicity. Thus, in the first example above, it would incorrect to generate the following sentence:

Doy la pelota a Juan.

The existence of the indirect object requires the presence of the indirect object pronoun. While the meaning of the above simple sentence is clear, a sentence could become ambiguous whenever the preposition ‘a’ is confused with the ‘personal a‘ which marks the direct object of a verb whenever that object is a person.