8. Los pronombres de objeto indirecto (POI)

As you remember, the subject and the predicate are two parts of the sentence. The subject is who is doing the action. The predicate has the core: conjugated verb and the complement (extra information). An Indirect Object is part of the complement, it is extra information. The function of the Indirect Object is to indicate to whom or for whom an action is done. You have already learned the Indirect Object Pronouns with “La estructura gustar y verbos similares”. The Indirect Object Pronouns are not exclusive of this structure. We can find indirect objects in several situations, for example:

The Indirect Object Pronoun precedes a conjugated verb or follows attached to the verboide (an infinitive or a gerund). The two options are correct.

María le lee à POI before conjugated verb “lee”.

María le tiene que leer à POI before conjugated verb “tiene”.

María tiene que leerle à POI attached to infinitive “leer”.

María le está leyendo à POI before conjugated verb “está”.

Está leyendo is in present progressive.

María está leyéndole à POI attached to the gerund “leyendo”.

Está leyendo is in present progressive.

Are you wondering why there is a written accent mark (an orthographic accent)? à leyéndole. It is because the natural stress on the word leyendo is on the second “e”, since the word ends in a vowel (Review Unit 1.2: La acentuación en español). When we add the extra syllable “le”, we need to indicate where the natural stress was on the original word with el acento ortográfico à leyéndole.

Veamos otros ejemplos:

For each one of the following examples write the subject of the sentence (who is doing the action), the action (core of the predicate) and the Indirect Object (to whom or for whom the action is done).

Yo le canto una canción.

Sujeto:______________________________

Verbo:_______________________________

Objeto Indirecto: _____________________

Pronombre de objeto indirecto: ___________

Ella os enseña español.

Sujeto:______________________________

Verbo:_______________________________

Objeto Indirecto: _____________________

Pronombre de objeto indirecto: ___________

Juan les lee un cuento.

Sujeto:_____________________________

Verbo:______________________________

Objeto Indirecto:_____________________

Pronombre de objeto indirecto: __________

Geneseo nos prepara para ser bilingües.

Sujeto:_____________________________

Verbo:______________________________

Objeto Indirecto:_____________________

Pronombre de objeto indirecto: __________

Unfortunately the English verbs that require an indirect object pronoun, are not always the same in Spanish.

The following verbs are commonly used with indirect object pronouns (IOP).

Español	Inglés	Español	Inglés
contar ( o-ue)	To tell	hablar	to speak
contestar	To answer	mandar	to send
dar*	To give	ofrecer	to offer
escribir	To write	pagar	to pay
explicar	To explain	preguntar	to ask a question
gritar	To shout, scream	regalar	to give a present

*Dar irregular verb

Practiquemos

Write complete sentences using five of the verbs above with the different POI.

1. _______________________________________________
2. _______________________________________________
3. _______________________________________________
4. _______________________________________________
5. _______________________________________________

An Indirect Object Pronoun (IOP) can be emphasized or clarified by using a phrase introduced by the preposition “a”, just as we studied with the structure “gustar”. As you remember, the emphasis or clarification is optional.

Some examples:

Le escribo un email a Juan.

Tengo que escribirle un email a Juan.

¡Nos va a escribir un autógrafo a nosotras!

Debe de escribirnos un autógrafo a nosotras.

Quiero escribirte una carta a ti.

Te quiero escribir una carta a ti.

Now you use five other verbs from above and write complete sentences but clarify or emphasize the IOP.

1. ____________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________
4. _____________________________________________
5. _____________________________________________