Learn all about direct object pronouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dylan: Hola, hola a todos. Es Dylan. |
| Carlos: What’s going on Pod101 world? My name is Carlos. -A re you the Spanish object of someone’s affection? In this lesson you will learn about direct object pronouns. |
| Dylan: This conversation takes place in an office. |
| Carlos: The conversation is between Sylvia, a secretary, and Julio. |
| Dylan: The speakers are friends so they are speaking informally. |
| Carlos: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| RECEPCIONISTA: Doña Silvia, hay un mensajero con flores en el lobby que la llama. |
| SILVIA: ¿Flores? Un momento, ya bajo...Julio, ¿qué hace aquí? |
| JULIO: Pensé en pasar... son casi las doce... ¿quiere almorzar? |
| SILVIA: ¡Claro! ¡Qué sorpresa, qué bueno verle! |
| JULIO: No ha cambiado nada. |
| RECEPTIONIST: Ms. Silvia, there's a messenger with flowers in the lobby who's asking for you. |
| SILVIA: Flowers? Just a minute, I'll be right down... Julio, what are you doing here? |
| JULIO: I thought I'd stop by...it's almost twelve o'clock...do you want to have lunch? |
| SILVIA: Of course! What a surprise! It's so good to see you! |
| JULIO: You haven't changed a bit. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: So, Dylan, wait a minute. You know in the States it is not common, how common is it here for a man to send a woman flowers like at work? |
| Dylan: Not so much. It’s not common at all. |
| Carlos: Ok, well maybe it should be. |
| Dylan: You know I think so. Receiving flowers is a big deal. It just makes somebody’s day to have fresh flowers on their desk. |
| Carlos: Ok, I’ll keep that in mind. |
| Dylan: Yes, Carlos, you do that. |
| Carlos: I just might. |
| Dylan: There is a way to send flowers in Costa Rica. |
| Carlos: Is there? |
| Dylan: Yes, I’ll have to do a little research but I’ve seen it on the internet once in a while on Ads. |
| Carlos: Persons do on the street, go bring me flowers. |
| Dylan: Yes, let them steal your money. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Carlos: Ok, guys, let’s look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Dylan: “Mensajero”. |
| Carlos: “Messenger”, “courier.” |
| Dylan: “Men-sa-je-ro”, “mensajero”. “Flor”. |
| Carlos: “Flower.” |
| Dylan: “Flor”, “flor”. “Pasar”. |
| Carlos: “To pass”, “to go by”, “to come by”, “to come.” |
| Dylan: “Pa-sar”, “pasar”. “Casi”. |
| Carlos: “Almost”, “nearly.” |
| Dylan: “Ca-si”, “casi”. “Sorpresa”. |
| Carlos: “Surprise.” |
| Dylan: “Sor-pre-sa”, “sorpresa”. “Cambiar”. |
| Carlos: “To change.” |
| Dylan: “Cam-biar”, “cambiar”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Dylan: The first word we’ll look at is “mensajero”. |
| Carlos: Not too much of a stretch to “messenger”. |
| Dylan: No, definitely not. |
| Carlos: You know I realize now that it will be almost impossible to have bike messengers in Costa Rica, simply because of the terrain. |
| Dylan: At least definitely in the central valley. |
| Carlos: Maybe motorcycle messengers? |
| Dylan: Yes, well that is possible but you know how those guys take their lives in their own hands every day? |
| Carlos: Yes, you know I saw somebody on a motorcycle got hit by a car the other day? It was actually a couple. |
| Dylan: Were they alright? |
| Carlos: Actually they look more shaken up more than anything else. |
| Dylan: Well this scene from the conversation kind of reminds me of the movie “Hitch”. |
| Carlos: Why? |
| Dylan: Oh come on, listen “Doña Sylvia, hay un mensajero con flores en el lobby que la llama”. |
| Carlos: “Miss Sylvia, there is a messenger with flowers in the lobby who is asking for you.” |
| Dylan: Now that is classy. |
| Carlos: I don’t know, I never had the minerals do that. You know send flowers to women by messengers. I mean, I can see how you do that in New York, but is it easy here? |
| Dylan: Well like I told you before, it is not super easy but there is a way and I am going to find out. |
| Carlos: Thank you. The reason that I asked is because “hoy vino un mensajero y dejó este paquete para usted”. |
| Dylan: Where did the messenger come from? And where did he leave a packet? |
| Carlos: Don’t know, was trying to think of an example that was one that came to my mind. |
| Dylan: Oh you know, I think we have gone over related words already in an early lesson. |
| Carlos: You are right, I know what it is “mensaje”, “usted tiene un mensaje nuevo”. You’ll be surprised how helpful little recordings like that on the phone or billboards help you learn Spanish. |
| Dylan: I can imagine. |
| Carlos: What’s next? |
| Dylan: “Flor”. |
| Carlos: “Flor”, “flor”. See the movie “Spanglish”? Sorry, this will date the lesson. |
| Dylan: Yes, I have seen the movie “Spanglish”. |
| Carlos: Since we are going over the feminine noun “flor”, “flower”, I am reminded of the scene where Téa Leoni’s character can’t say correctly in everybody else keep saying “flor”, “flor”. Rolling their tongues and I think it was impossible for her. |
| Dylan: Rolling your Rs is not easy for everyone. |
| Carlos: I know or it is too easy for others. |
| Dylan: Those are people like you who then over pronounce their rolling Rs. Got to find a happy medium. |
| Carlos: Bueno, voy a tratar. “Flores, un momentito, ya bajo”. “Flowers, just a minute I’ll be right down.” |
| Dylan: So here we have the “flor” plural, “flores”. Say it with me. |
| M1 &Dylan: “Flores”, “flores”. |
| Dylan: See, just soften that “R” a little bit and you got it. |
| Carlos: Something else I need to practice. ¿Sabes qué, Dylan? |
| Dylan: ¿Qué? |
| Carlos: “Yo le compré flores a mi novia el 14 de febrero”. |
| Dylan: You “bought flowers for your girlfriend on Valentine’s Day.” Wait, weren’t you with… |
| Carlos: The next verb is “pasar”. |
| Dylan: “To pass”, “to go by”, “to come by”, “to come”. Man, you just jumped on that quickly. What about “flor” related words? |
| Carlos: Bueno... the noun “florero”… “the vase”? |
| Dylan: “Pasar” has so many meanings that is why we have studied it so many times. |
| Carlos: Right, I mean as I listened to the example from the conversation, I really see its different meaning depending on context. |
| Dylan: “Pensé en pasar”. |
| Carlos: “I thought I’d stop by.” |
| Dylan: Now we could say in English “I thought I’d passed by”. |
| Carlos: Right, they both made sense. At least I know I have a choice in meaning so that I can express just what I really want to express. |
| Dylan: Let’s try a new “pasar” in another sense, one that might be easier to take in. |
| Carlos: “Cuando voy para mi trabajo siempre paso frente a tu casa”. |
| Dylan: “When I go to work I always pass in front of your house.” |
| Carlos: How about another one since this is such a versatile verb? |
| Dylan: “Yo paso mucho tiempo con mi familia”. |
| Carlos: “I pass a lot of time with my family.” |
| Dylan: But from our use in the conversation, we can relate the verb “venir”, “to come”, with “pasar”. |
| Carlos: Right. “Stop by”, “come by”, more choices. |
| Dylan: Well, here is an adverb for you “casi”. |
| Carlos: “Casi”. “Almost”, “nearly”. |
| Dylan: “Son casi las doce”. “It’s almost twelve.” |
| Carlos: Man, Julio gets straight to the point, I admire that. |
| Dylan: I bet you do. |
| Carlos: Hey, for a man to just jump up and show up at a woman’s job, takes some guts. |
| Dylan: Imagine if she said “no”? |
| Carlos: Never, in situations like that you always have to stay positive. |
| Dylan: “Casi nunca falla”. |
| Carlos: Exactly, positivity “almost never fails”. Do you know what I relate with “casi”? |
| Dylan: What? |
| Carlos: “Tal vez”, “maybe”. And I have no idea why. |
| Dylan: But you could group those together in simple words you should learn. |
| Carlos: Right, link words like “almost”, “maybe”, “so”. All of those little things that make connections and new ones. |
| Dylan: Fancy. |
| Carlos: Sometimes. |
| Dylan: “¡Sorpresa!” |
| Carlos: “Surprise”. As a woman is that a nice surprise she got? |
| Dylan: Random flowers at work? You better believe it. |
| Carlos: So what you think she is thinking when she says “¡qué sorpresa!¡qué bueno verte!” |
| Dylan: “What a surprise, it is so good to see you!” I think you can read between those lines pretty easily. |
| Carlos: “Tengo una sorpresa”. |
| Dylan: What surprise? |
| Carlos: That was my sample sentence. |
| Dylan: “¡Qué sorprendente!”, “How surprising.” |
| Carlos: I try, I try. I know it’s getting stale. |
| Dylan: Yes, well try our last word. |
| Carlos: Which? |
| Dylan: Last, but certainly not least, the verb “cambiar”. |
| Carlos: “Cambiar”. “To change.” |
| Dylan: How is it used in our conversation? |
| Carlos: But when Julio says “no has cambiado nada”. |
| Dylan: You haven’t changed a bit. And every woman loves to hear that after not seeing someone since high school. |
| Carlos: Especially when the years have accumulated. |
| Dylan: Now here we see the past participle “cambiado”, “changed”. |
| Carlos: Right on. |
| Dylan: Let’s look at some sample sentences. |
| Carlos: You know I am always down to hear those. |
| Dylan: “Manuel está muy cambiado”. |
| Carlos: “Manuel is very changed.” I guess he wasn’t as lucky as Sylvia. |
| Dylan: No some people are more susceptible to “el cambio”. |
| Carlos: “The change.” |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dylan: Now, direct object pronouns. |
| Carlos: Those are really hard and pesky. |
| Dylan: Pesky? |
| Carlos: A word I don’t always use, but here it fits. |
| Dylan: Yes, when learning Spanish these are very pesky. |
| Carlos: So remind me what they are again. |
| Dylan: Well, how about you? I know you’ve studied them before. |
| Carlos: Very true. Direct object receive the action directly from the verb. |
| Dylan: Right, for example, “I see Miguel”. Here “Miguel” is the direct object. He is what I see. |
| Carlos: Exactly. And keep that example in mind audience because it is similar to the one in our conversation. |
| Dylan: When we replace a direct object with a pronoun, we call it a direct object pronoun. |
| Carlos: And why do we use direct object pronouns again? |
| Dylan: We use these once we have mentioned the direct object in order to avoid redundancy or cacophony. |
| Carlos: A what? |
| Dylan: A harsh or discordant sound. |
| Carlos: Ok. |
| Dylan: Because both people and things can be the direct object of a verb, we must use gender and number to indicate the object to which each direct object pronoun refers. |
| Carlos: Ok. Thus, the direct part. |
| Dylan: Exactly. |
| Carlos: See what always gets me is the word order. |
| Dylan: Let’s see if I can help with that. |
| Carlos: Please do. |
| Dylan: The typical word order with direct object pronouns is subject plus direct object pronoun plus verb. Except when we using infinitive or gerund, in which case the direct object pronoun is suffixed or attached to the end of the infinitive or gerund. |
| Carlos: So it all depends on the conjugation of the verb? |
| Dylan: That’s exactly what it depends on. |
| Carlos: Cool. |
| Dylan: Listen to some examples. “Iba a llamarte”, “estoy llamándote”. |
| Carlos: Right. So the use of the infinitive “llamar”, “I was going to call you”, and the use of the gerund, “I am calling you”. |
| Dylan: Exactly, but notice the accent that we added to the vowel of the gerund ending when it receives a suffix pronoun. |
| Carlos: To be honest I didn’t notice that, but I do now. |
| Dylan: Let’s jump into formation. |
| Carlos: Vamos. |
| Dylan: For people. |
| Carlos: First person. |
| Dylan: “Me”. |
| Carlos: “Me.” |
| Dylan: “Nos”. |
| Carlos: “We”, “us.” Second person. |
| Dylan: “Te”. |
| Carlos: “You.” |
| Dylan: “Os”. |
| Carlos: “You.” Third person. |
| . |
| Dylan: “Lo”. |
| Carlos: “Him”, masculine. |
| Dylan: “La” |
| Carlos: “Her”, feminine. |
| Dylan: “Los”. |
| Carlos: “Them”, masculine. |
| Dylan: “Las”. |
| Carlos: “Them”, feminine. |
| Dylan: Now direct object pronouns also deal with things. |
| Carlos: Right, but they are the same, no? |
| Dylan: Yes. For things once again, we have to think of the gender of the thing. |
| Carlos: Ok. So let’s look at gender singular and then plural. Masculine. |
| Dylan: “Lo, los”. |
| Carlos: Feminine. |
| Dylan: “La, las”. Now you know some sample sentences will make this clearer. |
| Carlos: Absolutely. |
| Dylan: “Los vi en el parque”. |
| Carlos: “I saw them in the park.” |
| Dylan: “¡Ay!, no tengo el libro de química. Lo dejé en el colegio”. |
| Carlos: “Oh, I don’t have the chemistry book. I left it at school.” |
| Dylan: “Me avisarás si hay un cambio en el horario de mañana”. |
| Carlos: “You’ll inform me if there is a change in tomorrow’s schedule.” |
| Dylan: “¿Vas al centro ahora? ¿Nos llevas?” |
| Carlos: “Are you going downtown now? Will you take us?” |
| Dylan: “¡Qué bueno verte!” |
| Carlos: “It’s so good to see you”, which happens to be the example from our conversation today. |
| Dylan: Exactly, when Sylvia says “¡qué sorpresa! ¡qué bueno verte!” |
| Carlos: “What a surprise, it’s so good to see you”. And I see now that since we use the infinitive of the verb “ver”, “to see”, we attached the direct object pronoun “te” at the end of the verb. |
| Dylan: So now you understand the placement? |
| Carlos: Well, more than I did a little while ago. |
| Dylan: Because direct object pronouns replace nouns, it’s indispensable to know the number and gender of these nouns in order to be conscious of what the pronouns are referring to. Of course, context helps quite a bit with this. Nevertheless, we know that “lo” for example, could mean “him” or “you” in the masculine formal or “it” if the noun is a masculine singular thing. “La” could mean “her” or “you” in the feminine formal, or “it” if the noun is a feminine singular thing. “Los” could mean “them” in the masculine plural person or things, or “you all” in the masculine or neuter plural formal. |
| Carlos: Or shortening of my name. |
| Dylan: Focus, man! Finally… |
| Carlos: Sorry, that’s a long explanation. |
| Dylan: Oh yeah, you’re telling me. Finally, “las” could mean “them” in the feminine plural persons or things, or “you all” in the feminine or neuter plural formal. |
| Carlos: Man, it’s a good idea to learn the number and gender of nouns the same time as you learn their meanings. It makes the whole thing a lot easier. |
| Dylan: You know what else helps? |
| Carlos: What’s that? |
| Dylan: It will also be a good idea to make sure that you understand how to use indirect object pronouns such as “me”, “te”, “le”, “nos”, “os” and “les”. |
| Carlos: Right and those can be very confusing too. |
| Dylan: Also for an even deeper understanding of the topic, we recommend that you learn how to use direct and indirect object pronouns in the same phrase. |
| Carlos: Like what? |
| Dylan: For example, “¿Cuándo vas a entregárnoslo?” - “When are you going to deliver it to us?” |
Outro |
| Carlos: I will get that notion in my mind. Ok, guys, that just about does it for today. ¡Nos vemos! |
| Dylan: Chao! |
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