Learn the Spanish indirect object pronouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: “Give it to me straight in Spanish” ¿JP, cómo estás? |
| JP: Yo bien gracias y ¿tú Fernando? |
| Fernando: Muy bien. |
| JP: Fernando, tell us what we’re going to talk about in this lesson. |
| Fernando: En esta lección revisaremos los pronombres de complementos indirectos. Esta conversación toma lugar en un restaurante. La conversación es entre Brenda y Gerardo y estarán utilizando el registro familiar. |
| JP: Let’s listen to this dialogue between Brenda and Gerardo. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Brenda: Se nos casa para el siguiente año. Es tan afortunada. Su novio es divino. |
| Gerardo: Lo conocí hace unos dos años. Parece ser un buen tipo. |
| Brenda: ¿Sólo parece? De todos los que le he conocido a mi hija éste es el mejor sin duda alguna. |
| Gerardo: Bueno, si tú dices. Pero debes conocer a todas las ex-novias del novio porque es importante tener una perspectiva completa. |
| Brenda: No necesariamente. De eso se debe haber encargado mi hija tiempo atrás. |
| Gerardo: Wow, no sabía que era tan abierta tu hija. Con razón hay tanta buena química entre los dos. |
| Brenda: They're getting married next year. She's so lucky. Her boyfriend is divine. |
| Gerardo: I met him two years ago. He seems to be a nice guy. |
| Brenda: Seems to be? Of all the ones I've met, this one is the best to my daughter, without a doubt. |
| Gerardo: Well, if you say so. But you have to meet all the boyfriend's ex-girlfriends because it's important to have a complete perspective. |
| Brenda: Not necessarily. My daughter must have taken care of that a while ago. |
| Gerardo: Wow, I didn't know your daughter was so open. No wonder there's such good chemistry between the two of them. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: Back. Brenda and Gerardo are talking about Brenda’s daughter. |
| Fernando: Sí, la hija que se casa el próximo año. “Se nos casa para el siguiente año” le dice Brenda a Gerardo. |
| JP: “Se nos casa”, right? “She’s getting married on us.”, right? It’s kind of a surprise to us. “Oh, she’s getting married on us.”. |
| Fernando: “ Es tan afortunada. Su novio es divino.” |
| JP: “She’s so lucky. Hey boyfriend is divine.” Ok. Brenda is a fan of this, too. |
| Fernando: Sin duda alguna. Gerardo, está contento, “Lo conocí hace unos dos años. Parece ser un buen tipo.” |
| JP: He’s not as enthusiastic as Brenda, but, you know, “he’s charming and I met him a couple of years ago, seems like an ok guy”. And Brenda is like “Seems like?” |
| Fernando: “¿Sólo parece? De todos los que le he conocido a mi hija” de todos los novios, se refiere Brenda, “éste es el mejor sin duda alguna.”El “este” siendo el presente. |
| JP: Right. “This guy is the best one without a doubt.” |
| Fernando: “Bueno, si tú dices.”le contesta Gerardo.”Pero debes conocer a todas las ex-novias del novio porque es importante tener una perspectiva completa.” |
| JP: Ok. At this point, Gerardo is just causing trouble. He’s saying “Before you judge him, before you conclude that he’s an ok guy, you’re going to have to first meet all of his ex-girlfriends.” Why would he say that? Why is he going there? What is the point of this whiny reasoning? |
| Fernando: Es hija de papi al parecer. No quiere que se case su hija, no quiere que se vaya. Está siendo protectivo, nunca lo sabremos. |
| JP: All right. |
| Fernando: Brenda, cómo buena madre, “No necesariamente.” Así no habla ella pero quiero pensar que ese es el tono. “De eso se debe haber encargado mi hija tiempo atrás.” |
| JP: Right. “She must have taken care of that a long time ago.” It’s probably wishful thinking. Or, maybe she did. Who knows? |
| Fernando: Uno nunca sabe. Lastima que no sabes el nombre de la hija. |
| JP: That’s right. Well, from Brenda’s point of view it’s not up to her, right? She’s not going to worry about chasing this guy down and finding out his details. Because her daughter has already done it. |
| Fernando: Porfin y sobre todo porque su hija es feliz. Ya se va a casar entonces... |
| JP: Ok. |
| Fernando: nimodo de hacerlo ahora que se van a casar. Lo haces antes. |
| JP: Right. |
| Fernando: Gerardo un poquito, en tono sarcástico, “Wow, no sabía que era tan abierta tu hija.” |
| JP: “I didn’t know she was so open-minded.” |
| Fernando: “Con razón hay tanta buena química entre los dos.” |
| JP: “No wonder there’s so much good chemistry between those two.” |
| Fernando: No quiero saber a que se refiere Gerardo. |
| JP: We should have a look at the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: el tipo |
| JP: “Type”, “kind guy” |
| Fernando: el ti-po, el tipo. Tiempo atrás. |
| JP: “A while ago” |
| Fernando: tiem-po a-trás, tiempo atrás. Abierto |
| JP: “Open” |
| Fernando: a-bier-to, abierto. Con razón. |
| JP: “No wonder” |
| Fernando: con a-zón, con razón |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| JP: All right. Now, that we’ve heard these words in isolation, let’s have a little conversation about each of them. Shall we start with el tipo? |
| Fernando: Yo creo que sí. |
| JP: Ok. |
| Fernando: El tipo. |
| JP: So, if you look it up in the dictionary, it will be “type” or “kind”, but the secondary meaning, colloquially, we use “el tipo” to mean “a guy”, right? So, that dude. |
| Fernando: El tipo, la tipa. |
| JP: “La tipa” would be “the girl”. |
| Fernando: La mujer, sí. |
| JP: Right. |
| Fernando: En este caso sería la mujer. |
| JP: Ok. |
| Fernando: Muy facil. Tiempo atrás. |
| JP: This is an idiomatic expression. “Tiempo atrás”, we use it to mean “a while ago”. |
| Fernando: Literalmente, si desglosas esta frase, esta expresión tienes “tiempo” |
| JP: “Time” |
| Fernando: y “atrás” |
| JP: “Back” |
| Fernando: Tiempo atrás, entonces de ahí viene creó la traducción, “a while ago” |
| JP: Excellent. |
| Fernando: Abierto. |
| JP: This is the word that hangs in the signs of the stores, right? When they’re open, “abierto”. |
| Fernando: Sí. |
| JP: Ok. I think in the dialogue we’re talking about the daughter being “abierta”. Gerardo says “Wow, no sabía que era tan abierta tu hija” – “I didn’t realize your daughter was so open.” In this case, it means “open-minded”, right? |
| Fernando: Open-minded. |
| JP: Abierto, abierta. |
| Fernando: La última, con razón. |
| JP: “Con razón”. This is also an idiomatic expression. It’s exactly like the English “no wonder”. “Con razón” – “No wonder.” |
| Fernando: “Without reason.” |
| JP: Doesn’t work. That’s why it’s an idiom. Gerardo says “Con razón hay tanta buena química entre los dos.” – “No wonder there’s so much good chemistry between them.” |
| Fernando: “With reason” |
| JP: I don’t think that works in English, Fernando. |
| Fernando: It just sounds fun, though. |
| JP: Yes, it sounds fun. Should we talk about the grammar? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Fernando: No. |
| JP: Ok. We’re going to talk about indirect object pronouns today. “Pronombres de los complementos indirectos”. |
| Fernando: ¿Y esto qué significa? |
| JP: Well, as you know, verbs have subjects, right? It’s the, usually, the actor of the verb. Verbs also have objects, something that gets acted on, something that receives the action; those are direct objects. The indirect object is the person in the sentence that benefits from the actor doing the action on the victim of the action. So, for example, if I said “My dad gave me a dollar.”? |
| Fernando: Mi papá me dio un dólar. |
| JP: You know that the action is giving, right? In Spanish it would be “dio”. |
| Fernando: dio |
| JP: Who did the giving? |
| Fernando: El papá |
| JP: Right. So, “el papá” is the subject, he’s the actor. What did he give? He gave what? What was the victim? What was screaming and saying “No.” while he was doing it? |
| Fernando: Un dólar. |
| JP: Yes, exactly. The dollar. |
| Fernando: ¿Pero estaba gritando? |
| JP: Well, I’m trying to make it into a victim so you can understand the roles, right? The direct object is the victim. In this case, the money is having the action perpetuated on it, right? So, the money gets given. The money is the direct object. Now, there’s a beneficiary in this exchange, is somebody who get, receives, the benefit of it. |
| Fernando: En este caso sería el hijo. |
| JP: “El hijo”, right. Now, with this sense we know exactly who that child is, right? Me dio un dólar. |
| Fernando: El hijo. |
| JP: “El hijo” – “me”. He gave it to me. |
| Fernando: A mí. |
| JP: “A mí”, exactly. I get the dollar. Now, we’ve got pronouns for this in Spanish and they go before the conjugated verb, just like the direct object pronouns. They look a little bit like the direct object pronouns, but they are different in the third person. The first person, as you probably know, is “me”, right? And it look exactly like the direct object pronoun “me”. The second person is “te”, like the direct object pronoun “te”. For the third person singular, the indirect object pronoun is “le”, all right? So, “le” means “to him”, “to her”, “to it” or “for him”, “for her”, “for it”. Ok? It’s very easy the plural of “le” is “les”. Now, for first person plural, you have “nos” and for second person plural in Spain you have “vos”. Now, I just read the chart here. If you want to take a look at this chart, you can go to our website, which is www.Spanishpod101.com take a look at how that’s laid out, might be easier for some people to take in. I want to point out some of the uses of the indirect object pronoun in the dialogue. For example, when Brenda says “She’s getting married on us next year.” |
| Fernando: Se nos casa para el siguiente año. |
| JP: You heard the word “nos” in there, right before the conjugated verb “se nos casa” That “nos” is the indirect object pronoun “to us”. What it’s doing in that sense, is Brenda’s implying that the action is happening “to us” - “a nosotros”. So, she’s getting married, but it’s happening “to us” - “se nos casa”. |
| Fernando: ¿Pero en inglés se manejaría esa traducción? |
| JP: No, in English it wouldn’t really be a indirect object pronoun, we’d say, you know, colloquially we might say “She’s getting married on us.” |
| Fernando: Pero es muy raro que se escuche asi. Es más común, osea es decir, es más común en Español. Este tipo de comunicación. |
| JP: Actually, it sounds a little colloquially country in English, but in Spanish it’s standard. Some of you that it might have studied traditional grammar, know the indirect object as the Dative. The word “Dative” comes from Latin, and it’s actually related to the Spanish word “dar”, means “to give”. “Dar” is like the pastry child verb for indirect object pronouns. That’s why they named this pronoun after it: the Dative pronoun. Another one is “decir” – “to say” or “to tell”, also always has an indirect object pronoun whether it’s explicit or implied. So, Fernando, can you give us a sample sense with the verb “decir”? |
| Fernando: Dinos la verdad. |
| JP: “Tell us the truth.” In English, I could probably say “Tell the truth.”. And “to us” or “to me” would be implied. In Spanish you should use the pronoun “Dinos la verdad” – “Tell us the truth.”, if it’s “to me’, “Tell me the truth.” “Dinos la verdad”. “Dinos” is a great verb for using the indirect object pronouns. Now, a lot of other verbs that need the indirect object pronouns are semantically similar to “dar” or “decir”. So, things are like “dar” – “to give”, “regalar” is kind of like “give”, “regalar” will also have an indirect object pronoun. “Donar” is like “give” and it will also have an indirect object pronoun. For verbs like “decir”, maybe “informar” or “denunciar”, all these verbs of communication will act just like “decir” and use indirect object pronouns. Some other very famous verbs that use indirect object pronouns are the ones that express likes and dislikes. Fernando, can you give us an example? |
| Fernando: Te gustan mis zapatos. |
| JP: “Do you like my shoes?” is that a question or are you telling me? |
| Fernando: No, más vale que te gusten mis zapatos. |
| JP: Ok. “You better like my shoes.” Ok. Here we’re using “gustar” – “to give pleasure to”, and so the question is “Do you like my shoes? Do my shoes give pleasure to you?” Now, we heard the indirect object in English, “to you”, in Spanish “te gustan, te gustan mis zapatos”. And it’s not a question. |
| Fernando: No es pregunta ni era dirigida para JP: |
| JP: Ok. Other verbs like “gustar” are “encantar” and “disgustar” and other verbs of expressing your preference. |
Outro |
| JP: So, you know what, Fernando? I think our listeners will understand this if they take a look at the grammar section that I’ve written. |
| Fernando: ES tiempo de despedirnos. |
| JP: Hasta luego |
| Fernando: Adios. |
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