Using Direct and Indirect Objects Together | The Language Tutor *Lesson 76*

So this is what we're talking about. Remember direct object pronouns are lo, la, los, and las. And that is how we say it and them when we're talking about an object, okay? So where is my pencil? I have it. We're talking about an object, all right? So it is replacing the direct objects with the direct object pronoun. So lo, la, los, las means it and them talking about an object. All right, now remember a long time ago we learned indirect object pronouns, me, te, le, nos, os, les, when we put them on the chart. And those talk about to whom a verb is done. To whom a verb is done, all right? Now this lesson is going to talk about those together. Now we don't ever really have an issue until we have one troublemaker, right? We don't have an issue until we try to use le and les. Those two right there, le and les together with a direct object, okay? Now let's put an example up here on the screen so you'll know what I'm talking about, okay? We're gonna use the example, the waitress served the food to the guests. All right, pretty simple sentence. Let's go ahead and put it in Spanish. La camarera sirvió la comida a los invitados. Pretty straight translation, all right. But now I want to underline two things for you. First thing I wanna do is underline la comida, okay? Because we're gonna replace the food with the word it in just a minute, okay? I also want to underline a los invitados because we're gonna replace that with the word les because it's showing to whom it is done and it's plural so it's gonna be to them, so we're gonna use les. And again, if you need to go revisit these lessons, go back to direct objects and indirect objects in many lessons ago and you can revisit this if you need to before continuing. But we've underlined those two things because we're gonna replace those. We're gonna replace la comida with a direct object pronoun which is la in this case. And a los invitados, we're gonna replace it with les. Okay, it goes in front of the verb typically, right? Now, this is what it would be in English. The waitress served the food to the guests would become the waitress served it to them. All right, now typically we would replace la comida with la, no problem there. And we would replace a los invitados with the word les. No problem there. But when we put these together, it would sound a little funny. It would be like this, la camarera les la sirvió. That doesn't work. Okay, that's a lot of L words in a row but it doesn't work in Spanish. We have to change this. So in this case, when we're using le or les with a direct object pronoun, we're going to change that le to se. Okay, so it would look like this. La camarera se la sirvió, se la sirvió. And I know you're thinking, but I thought se was reflexive. It is, don't worry. It's also passive voice, right? Don't worry, but it is understood in Spanish. Don't worry, it makes sense to them, I promise, okay? Now let's look at one more example, okay? Now, the man gave the jacket to her friend. What a nice guy, right? Such a gentleman. All right, so the man gave the jacket to her friend. Let's put that into Spanish. El hombre le dio la chaqueta a su amiga. Now I'm going to underline la chaqueta and I'm going to underline a su amiga. Okay, and we're going to replace la chaqueta with la again, direct object pronoun. We're going to replace a su amiga, indirect object pronoun, which in this case would be le, okay? Because we've done to her, singular, but we can't say le lo, so we're going to change it to se, el hombre se la dio, el hombre se la dio. All right, it makes perfect sense in Spanish. And amigos, that's what we do. Anytime you have le or les with a direct object, you're going to need to change it to se in this kind of situation that I've shown you on the screen today, okay? Keep practicing. I encourage you to start trying to bring this into your conversation because it is used a whole lot in Spanish and it'll help you to start bringing it in more fluidly into your conversation and it'll also help you understand when other people are using it because they do use this a lot, okay?