ellos nos los piden (they ask us for them)

Hello,

This is my first time to post here and I am not sure if my post is in the right forum.

I am doing the Level 1 Language and Culture Lesson Module 4.10 and I came across this ellos nos los piden (they ask us for them) and I am trying to understand the "nos los" position and I could not even explain to myself. From the sentence, I thought the Indirect Object here is the "for them" so I was expecting that the Spanish sentence should be something like, "ellos les nos piden" ? 

of course, I am not sure If I am correct but yeah I just need some help understanding the Spanish sentence construction.

Angel: it is the right forum. Unfortunately I am not the right person to answer your question. I have struggled with understanding direct and indirect objects used together since, well, since I studied the lesson that you are now on. Someday I will.

In the meantime, Esteben or Ricardo o Jeff will be along shortly to enlighten us.

Hey, I was going to suggest Dan, Ricardo or Jeff...
 

Hola a todos,
 My take and I could be wrong. Los is the direct object them  whatever that might be . Ellos is the subject pronoun, nos is the indirect object.  Nos piden : "The ask us."" Les nos piden" seems wrong, nos and les both being indirect object pronouns.
I welcome correction if I'm wrong.
Saludos,
Ricardo

I have never seen Ricardo wrong.

For me, "Les nos piden" just sounds bad but for the life of me I couldn't tell you why (which is obviously not a very helpful explanation). I find now though that with many things like ser/estar, por/para and others, I've just gotten used to hearing things said correctly.
 

Right on the money Ricardo.  Pedir  was a difficult verb in the beginning for me to understand when using IO's or DO's.  The person or person's being asked will always be the IO.  That is without exception.  Whatever remains will then be the DO.  Also when using pedir  remember that it means to ask for.  The for  is included and so whatever it applies to will be the DO.

Les nos piden   =   Ustedes asked them for us.

Ahh that makes sense, thank you!

¿Nunca estoy equivocado? Mi esposa no está de acuerdo.

Creo que uno de los problemas que tengo con esta tema es que los ejemplos no podría usado en conversaciones normales. ¿Quien va a decir "They ask us for them." A mi, suena torpe, por lo menos en ingles.

Dan, estoy de acuerdo.

Ricardo, jajaja!  Tal vez puedas mostrale el comentario de Esteben.

No estaba conectado a RL desde varios días. Hablando de esposas, ¿puedes verificar la frase “les nos piden” con la tuya, Jeff? No se escucha muy bien a mis orejas. Creo que hay que decir “se nos piden” en ese caso. Quizás no esté en lo correcto, pero no tengo esposa para decirme lo contrario…
 

Está en celular.  Le preguntaré pronto.
 

LOL!  Mi pobre esposa. Me dijo que siempre intento confundirla.  Bueno, ella dice que:

ellos nos los piden es correcto
les nos piden es extraño y no usado pero correcto
se nos piden no tiene sentido

Here are my thoughts in English to better express myself and perhaps some of the beginners understand a little more.

IO and DO placement is important and understanding which is which and it's placement in the sentence is paramount to having success.  With pedir the IO is always the person or object that is being asked.  The DO  is always the person or object desired or asked for.  When the IO  is se it is because (and if I'm correct) it is only because the DO starts with an L. If the DO is se it is because the DO and the subject are the same and therefore it is reflexive.  In the aforementioned example the se would have to be reflexive and it's important to note that in reflexive use with se, the order of IO and DO changes making the nos the IO. That being said I looked in my dictionaries for the reflexive use, pedirse.  It wasn't listed.  I looked on spanishdict.com and they say the reflexive is used similar to call dibs on something.  So, I doubt I answered any questions, but then again, what do I know?  lol

¡Gracias, amigo!

De nada.  Un pensamiento más, pedirse puede ser usado para invitarse o tratarse especial.  Por ejemplo:

Me pido un helado = I want an ice cream.  I going to treat myself to an ice cream. Etc.