3. Indirect Object Pronouns
• The third person pronouns, particularly the
indirect object pronouns, are sometimes
ambiguous.
• Remember that “me” “te” and “nos” have
really clear referents.
4. A Clear Example
• Mi esposo me dio el perro como regalo de
Navidad = My husband gave me the dog as a
Christmas present.
• There is no question in anybody’s mind, who
the “me” refers to.
5. A Confusing Example
• Mi esposo le dio el perro como regalo de Navidad
= My husband gave (him/her/you-formally? –
WHO????) the dog as a Christmas present.)
• See the problem?
• Thus, in many situations, Spanish doubles up and
uses both the pronoun and a phrase that explains
the pronoun.
• Mi esposo le dio el perro a su amigo como regalo
de Navidad.
6. The Next Question
• So why not just skip the pronoun and say the
following?
• Mi esposo dio a su hermano el perro como
regalo de Navidad.
• This seems simple, and clear --- and no need
to use a pronoun.
7. The answer
• In some parts of the Spanish speaking
world, you may see the structure without the
pronoun.
• But overall, if there is an explanatory “a”
phrase, there is usually a pronoun as well in
front of the verb.
• This structure is called the “redundant indirect
pronoun” structure.
• It is designed to drive you crazy!
8. Redundant direct object pronouns
• This redundancy doesn’t just happen with
indirect object pronouns.
• There is also a redundant direct object
pronoun structure.
• Thankfully it is more rule governed than the
dialect-driven structure of the indirect object.
9. The rule
• In cases where the speaker has put the direct
object IN FRONT of the verb, a redundant
direct object pronoun must be used.
• As we know from our previous
studies, subjects can move around a lot --- but
so can direct objects.
• We’ve already run into this once --- and you
successfully navigated it!
10. Example
• Sus últimos años los pasó como vigilante
nocturno de la ciudad.
• The underlying SVO structure here is:
• Chase pasó sus últimos años como . . .
• But the writer wrote an OV structure instead.
• Sus últimos años pasó . . .
• So a direct object pronoun must ALSO appear in
front of the verb:
• Sus últimos años los pasó
11. The Preterite
• Most verbs in Spanish mean the same thing in
the preterite as they mean in the present.
• Example: caminar (to walk)
• Yo camino mucho cada día.
• Yo caminé mucho ayer.
• In both of these sentences the idea conveyed
by the form of “caminar” is “walk.”
12. Exceptions
• There are some verbs (thankfully not many)
that actually change a bit when used in the
past.
13. Querer
• Querer is one of these verbs. In the present, it
means “want.” In the preterite, it means “tried”
(often unsuccessfully). In the negative preterite,
it means “refused.”
• Yo quiero hablar español con el mesero. (I want to
speak Spanish with the waiter.)
• Yo quise hablar español con el mesero. (I tried to
speak Spanish with the waiter.)
• Yo no quise hablar español con el mesero. (I
refused to speak Spanish with the waiter.)
14. Example
• Chase quiso proseguir su carrera en la mar
pero . . . = Chase tried to pursue his sea career
but . . .
15. Saber
• In the present, saber means to know (as in to
know facts).
• In the preterite, it means “to learn, to learn
of, to find out about.”
• Yo sé que los perros tienen colas = I know that
dogs have tails.
• Yo supe que unos perros no tienen colas = I
found out that some dogs don’t have tails.
16. Example
• . . . nunca más se supo de ellos. . . = Never
more were they learned of = nothing more
was learned about them . . . Nothing more
was discovered of them. . .
17. Poder
• In the present poder means to be able to.
• In the preterite, it means “to manage to” (as
in to manage to achieve something).
• Yo puedo hablar portugués = I can speak
Portuguese.
• Yo pude hablar en portugués = I managed to
speak in Portuguese.
18. Attributive Phrases
• In English, the two most common attributive
phrases are “in x” and “according to x.”
• In Moby Dick, Melville tells the story of some
sailors chasing a whale.
• According to Melville, whales are fish!
19. Spanish Attributive Phrases
• Here are a couple of phrases that you’ll want
to learn cold.
• Como nota. This means “as noted” and refers
to something previously mentioned.
• Según. Most of the time, this functions like
the English prepositional compound
“according to.”
• Según él, las ballenas cantan. (According to
him, whales sing).
20. More on Según
• Unlike “according to” in English, según can be
followed by a clause, in which case the word is
translated as “according to what . . .”.
• Example:
• Según dice la maestra, hay un examen
mañana.
• According to what the teacher says, there is
an exam tomorrow.
21. Adverbial Verbs
• For lack of a better term, these are verbs that
express ideas usually expressed by an adverb
(not a verb) in English.
• Two common verbs that do this are “volver”
and “soler.”
22. Soler
• This stem-changing verb
(suelo, sueles, suele, solemos, suelen), means
(roughly) “to usually.”
• Thus, it is always followed by a verb.
• Example: Suele pasar = It usually happens.
23. Volver
• Volver can be a stand-alone verb with the
meaning of “to return” (as in volvió a
Nantucket = he returned to Nantucket).
• Used with a preposition a and an infinitive, it
means “to again” (volvió a naufragar = he
again shipwrecked . . .)
