Learn how to use direct object pronouns
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Dylan: Hola, hola a todos. Habla Dylan, ¿cómo están? |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world? My name is Carlos. |
| Dylan: In this lesson, you will learn about direct object pronouns. |
| Carlos: This conversation takes place in a bookstore. |
| Dylan: The conversation is between Andres, Ana, the clerk and the seller. |
| Carlos: The speakers are strangers, so they are speaking formally. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Andrés: Hola, amigo, busco un diccionario de español. |
| Cajero: ¡Buenas! Disculpe, pero yo soy el cajero, no sé dónde están los diccionarios. |
| Ana: ¿No sabe? Entonces, ¿quién sabe? |
| Cajero: Pregúntele al vendedor que está al costado de las escaleras. |
| Andrés: Hola, disculpe, estoy buscando un diccionario de español. |
| Vendedor: Lo siento señor, no lo puedo ayudar. Yo soy el encargado de los libros de texto, no de los diccionarios. |
| Andrés: Hello, friend, I'm looking for a Spanish dictionary. |
| Cajero: Hello! Excuse me, but I'm the cashier; I don't know where the dictionaries are. |
| Ana: You don't know? Then who does? |
| Cajero: Ask the salesman who is at the side of the stairs. |
| Andrés: Hello, excuse me; I'm looking for a Spanish dictionary. |
| Vendedor: I'm sorry sir, I can't help you. I'm in charge of the textbooks, not the dictionaries. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dylan: My gosh! |
| Carlos: That’s normal passing the buck and responsibility. I don’t even want to get into cars over here guys. Is it normal, Dylan, to go into a store and people are like, well that’s not my job… |
| Dylan: Oh god yeah, all of the time. |
| Carlos: So this is a normal situation not just on bookstores. |
| Dylan: Normal. |
| Carlos: Let’s see I am in a big department store, like one really giant department store that’s really popular in United States and I want to ask question about a rice cooker but I am in the section with the TVs. If I ask the guy excuse me, you are in electronics. Could I ask you about this rice cooker? |
| Dylan: Yeah, he’s say, no that’s in another department. He might be nice enough to direct you in the right way to get to where you are going but that’s it. |
| Carlos: Okay guys, keep that in mind that if you travel to Latin America and I have found this in Europe as well, do not expect customer service like in America. It’s just not the same thing. Okay guys, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dylan: “Costado”. |
| Carlos: “Side.” |
| Dylan: “Cos-ta-do”, “costado”. “Escaleras”. |
| Carlos: “Stairs.” |
| Dylan: “Es-ca-le-ras”, “escaleras”. “Encargado, encargada”. |
| Carlos: “Responsible for”, “in charge of.” |
| Dylan: “En-car-ga-do, en-car-ga-da”, “encargado, encargada”. “Texto”. |
| Carlos: “Text.” |
| Dylan: “Tex-to”, “texto”. “Libro”. |
| Carlos: “Book.” |
| Dylan: “Li-bro”, “libro”. “Sentirse”. |
| Carlos: “To feel.” |
| Dylan: “Sen-tir-se”, “sentirse”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Dylan: The first word we will look at is “costado”. |
| Carlos: “Costado”. Now that sounds like it’s something to do with cost. |
| Dylan: You would think that, wouldn’t you but now actually it is a masculine noun that means “side.” |
| Carlos: “Side.” |
| Dylan: Escucha. “Pregúntele al vendedor que está al costado de las escaleras”. |
| Carlos: Ask the salesman who is at the side of the stairs. Okay yeah now it makes sense. |
| Dylan: Okay, wise guy. “Carlos está esperando en el costado oeste del parque”. What did I just say? |
| Carlos: “Carlos is waiting on the west side of the park.” |
| Dylan: Exactly. I figured you would get it if your name was involved. |
| Carlos: Dylan, when you are right, you are right. |
| Dylan: So what do you think a related word would be? |
| Carlos: A related word will be umm, “lado”, “side”. |
| Dylan: I think that would work. I will agree with that. |
| Carlos: “Lado”. Sounds good to me. |
| Dylan: Well, next up, something that maybe a little familiar. |
| Carlos: Familiar is always good. |
| Dylan: “Escaleras”. |
| Carlos: “Escaleras”. I know those, “stairs.” |
| Dylan: Right. We have a feminine noun and luckily we already heard the example. |
| Carlos: “Pregúntele al vendedor que está al costado de las escaleras”. |
| Dylan: “Ask the salesman who is at the side of the stairs.” |
| Carlos: Now do you usually use the stairs or the elevators? |
| Dylan: Well, since I got the kids, “no me gusta subir escaleras, usamos el elevador”. |
| Carlos: I can imagine things would be a lot easier in elevator with two small children. |
| Dylan: You have no idea. |
| Carlos: My cousin got hurt once in the escalators you know. |
| Dylan: Those things are dangerous. |
| Carlos: Now is there a verb that we could relate to “escaleras”? I mean I think it’s on the tip of my tongue. I can remember with theory. |
| Dylan: You are thinking of the verb “escalar”. |
| Carlos: Which means... |
| Dylan: “To climb”, “to escalate”, “to scale.” |
| Carlos: I suddenly have the urge to go out and climb those mountains right over there out of the window. |
| Dylan: Well, there are quite a few surrounding us so you can have your pick. |
| Carlos: And what’s next? |
| Dylan: Next up, “encargado”. “Encargado” is an interesting noun because it can be easily confused. |
| Carlos: Well, how so? |
| Dylan: Well, it means “charge”, “responsible”, “attendant.” |
| Carlos: Okay, oh I got it, right. In charge of – okay, ah yes, so not adjectives but nouns. |
| Dylan: Exactly. |
| Carlos: So how was it used in the conversation? |
| Dylan: “Yo soy el encargado de los libros de texto”. |
| Carlos: “I am in charge of the textbooks.” |
| Dylan: So really what you are looking for is “de”, following... |
| Carlos: Right, which would signify “in charge of…” |
| Dylan: The preposition is important. |
| Carlos: The little things always are but wait, I forgot the word “encargo” before. |
| Dylan: Right, I’m not surprise. “Encargo” means “custom.” Those two nouns sound very similar. |
| Carlos: Yes, yes, they do. |
| Dylan: And don’t forget the verb “encargar”. |
| Carlos: Oh yeah. It’s not like that makes things more complicated. |
| Dylan: You aren’t confusing. “Encargar” means “to entrust”, “intrust”, “charge”, “task”, “commission”, “mandate”, “urge”, “order”, “ask for”, “recommend.” |
| Carlos: Well, well, that’s a pretty heavy verb. |
| Dylan: Well, sometimes you have to hit hard. |
| Carlos: Take it easy. |
| Dylan: I am about to. Next up is the noun “texto”. |
| Carlos: “Texto”, “text.” That one is easy enough. |
| Dylan: I think that the word “text” has become more common in everyday Spanish and English because of the advent of cell phones. |
| Carlos: I would have to agree. Now what about the word text we are dealing without text messaging. |
| Dylan: Soon, we will be known as the generation who has living memory of life without a cell phone. |
| Carlos: I was just thinking of the same thing. |
| Dylan: Well, hold on, let’s not get carried away here. Where did we hear the word “texto” in the conversation? |
| Carlos: “Yo soy el encargado de los libros de texto”. |
| Dylan: “I am in charge of the textbooks.” See there is another use. |
| Carlos: Hey, we would like to keep things diversified. |
| Dylan: Well, let’s bring it event to fiction. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: “Estoy leyendo un texto muy interesante de Ken Follett”. |
| Carlos: “I am reading a very interesting text by Ken Follett”, but wouldn’t you say book? |
| Dylan: We will get to book but same text is like same work. It’s something more respectful to say more than book anyways. |
| Carlos: Whatever, I think it sounds a little bit condescending. I got a text by Ken Follett hahaha… |
| Dylan: Well, the related word is a no way condescending. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Dylan: “Textual”. |
| Carlos: “Textual”, “textual.” Okay, you have a point. What’s next? |
| Dylan: “Sentirse”. |
| Carlos: “To feel”, a very, very important verb. |
| Dylan: In our conversation, we have a very common usage when you want to say to someone that you are really sorry. |
| Carlos: “Lo siento señor”. |
| Dylan: “I am sorry sir.” Now what you are really saying in translation is that you feel it too, their situation that is. |
| Carlos: Yes. “Lo siento”, “I feel it.” You know, I think it’s a very good way to say you are sorry but I don’t think I’d buy it coming from a salesman in this or any other country. |
| Dylan: Very true, but let’s hear “sentirse” in a sample sentence. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: “A ella no le gusta sentirse sola”. |
| Carlos: “She does not like to feel alone.” Nobody likes to feel alone, Dylan. One good term deserves another. How about some related words? |
| Dylan: Well, “sentirse” means “to feel.” |
| Carlos: We have established that. |
| Dylan: But that concerns emotion. How about physically? |
| Carlos: That would be “tocar”, “to touch” or “to feel.” |
| Dylan: I will take that. |
| Carlos: Good because otherwise I can’t think of another one. |
| Dylan: Well, next up, one of your favorite things in the world. |
| Carlos: That could be a lot of things. What’s that? |
| Dylan: “Libro”. |
| Carlos: “Libro”, “book”, you are right. Books are my favorite things in the world. |
| Dylan: And once again, we have heard our example already but one more time I want to hear it. |
| Carlos: “Yo soy el encargado de los libros de texto”. |
| Dylan: “I am in charge of the textbook.” |
| Carlos: ¿Sabes qué? |
| Dylan: ¿Qué? |
| Carlos: Estoy escribiendo un libro ahora. |
| Dylan: How is your book coming along, Carlos? |
| Carlos: A lot of outlining and a lot of flushing out. I am noticing that if you are on to write a book with 50,000 words, you have to write about 500,000. |
| Dylan: It sounds intense. |
| Carlos: It is but it’s fun. I am used to thinking about it all the time. characters, plots, situations and such. |
| Dylan: ¡Qué chiva! |
| Carlos: Now what’s on our grammar plate today since you are so excited? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dylan: Direct object pronouns. |
| Carlos: Always fun but a bit confusing. |
| Dylan: Which is why we are going over it. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: Direct objects receive the action directly from the verb. For example, I see Miguel. Here Miguel is in the direct object. He is what I see. When we replace a direct object with the pronoun, we call it a direct object pronoun. |
| Carlos: And when do we use direct object pronouns? |
| Dylan: We use these once we have mentioned the direct object in order to avoid redundancy because both people and things can be direct object of a verb, we must use gender and number to indicate the object to which each direct object pronoun refers. The typical word order with direct object pronouns is subject plus direct object pronoun plus verb except when we use an infinitive or a gerund in which case the direct object pronoun is suffixed or attached to the end of the infinitive or gerund. |
| Carlos: Now that was a good explanation but how about some examples just to clear that up a little bit. |
| Dylan: All right. “Iba a llamarte”. |
| Carlos: “I was going to call you.” |
| Dylan: “Estoy llamándote”. |
| Carlos: “I am calling you.” |
| Dylan: Notice the accent that we added to the vowel of the gerund ending when it received a suffixed pronoun. |
| Carlos: I did notice that. Now what about formation? |
| Dylan: Well, for people? |
| Carlos: Well, let’s do singular first. |
| Dylan: Okay. “Me, te, os, lo, la” |
| Carlos: Okay, and plural? |
| Dylan: “Nos, os, los, las”. |
| Carlos: And for things? |
| Dylan: “Lo, la”. |
| Carlos: Plural? |
| Dylan: “Los, las”. |
| Carlos: How about some example sentences just to make it clear. |
| Dylan: Okay. “Yo te vi en el restaurante”. |
| Carlos: “I saw you in the restaurant.” |
| Dylan: “Ella quiere verlo más tarde”. |
| Carlos: “She wants to see him later.” |
| Dylan: “A él le gusta la sopa, siempre la come”. |
| Carlos: “He likes the soup. He always eats it.” |
| Dylan: “Nos llamaron ayer”. |
| Carlos: “They called us yesterday.” |
| Dylan: “Estaré buscándote en Skype”. |
| Carlos: “I will be looking for you on Skype.” |
| Dylan: “No he visto la película todavía, ¿dónde la viste?”. |
| Carlos: “I haven’t seen the movie yet, where did you see it?” or the example from our conversation. |
| Dylan: “No lo puedo ayudar”. |
| Carlos: “I can’t help you.” |
| Dylan: Because direct object pronouns replace nouns, it’s indispensable to know the number and the gender of these nouns in order to be conscious of what the pronouns are referring to. |
| Carlos: But I know that context helps a lot with this, doesn’t it? |
| Dylan: Nevertheless, we note 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 persons or things or “you all” in the masculine or neuter plural formal. |
| Carlos: “Los” can also be my nick name. |
| Dylan: Yeah, anyway, finally “las” could mean “them” in the feminine plural persons or things or “you all” in the feminine or neuter plural formal. |
| Carlos: So I would say that it’s a good idea to learn the number and gender of nouns at the same time as you learned their meanings. I mean, trust me guys, put a little effort in now, it makes things a whole lot easier. |
| Dylan: Don’t forget, Carlos. While studying this topic, 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”. Also for even deeper understanding of the topic, we recommend that you learn how to use direct and indirect object pronouns in the same phrase. For example, “¿cuándo vas a entregárnoslo?”, “when are you going to deliver it to us?” |
Outro |
| Carlos: Okay guys, that just about does it for today. |
| Dylan: ¡Hasta luego! |
| Carlos: Nos vemos, ¡chao! |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide