Grammar

Jose wants to give it to Maria.

Jose quiere darselo a Maria

Why cant we say Jose quiere darlo a Maria?

Why do we need the indirect object pronoun here..

What is the rule

I struggled with this for a while, but this is how I understand it (after a lot of reading and practice).

An indirect object will always be used for verbs where the action is intended for someone else.

In your example, it would be OK to say Jose quiere darselo. The a Maria is added to clarify (or add emphasis) on who the se is referring.

As you have already correctly figured out, the lo is referring to the it in the English sentence (and since we don't know what gender the it is, we use lo).

Hope that helps!

¡Hola Ken3883 y Scott_C!

The double-up with indirect objects that happens in Spanish can indeed be confusing! However, there are some rules that can help us out.

The most important one is that the indirect object pronoun is not actually always required. However, you do have to include it if you want to also use a prepositional pronoun (e.g. mí, ti, él, ella, etc.) preceded by the personal a as the indirect object in your sentence.

This means that if our sentence were José quiere dárselo a ella “José wants to give it to her” (i.e. including the personal a and the prepositional pronoun ella), then we would have to include the indirect object pronoun se. We wouldn't have a choice. But, since we are using a María instead of a ella in our sentence, we do have a choice: we can either include the indirect object pronoun (José quiere dárselo a María), or we can leave it out (José quiere darlo a María). Both options are grammatically correct. 

In everyday speech, though, native Spanish speakers tend to include the redundant indirect object pronoun more often than they leave it out, particularly if that pronoun is le or les (which both change to se when paired with a direct object pronoun). This means that native speakers would be much more likely to say José quiere dárselo a María than José quiere darlo a María.

So, in a nutshell: When in doubt, include the redundant indirect object pronoun! :)

I hope that this makes sense! The rules for the use of these pronouns can get quite complicated to explain, which is why we have three Language & Culture lessons devoted to the topic. It's easiest to take them each in order, from start to finish (if you haven't already): 

1. Lesson 5.6: "'Me' and 'Her': Direct Object Pronouns"
2. Lesson 5.7: "'To Me' and ‘For Her’: Indirect Object Pronouns"
3. Lesson 5.8: "Putting Direct & Indirect Object Pronouns Together"

If you'd like to learn more specifically about when redundant indirect object pronouns must be included and when they can be dropped, the sections "To Whom? Adding Clarity to LE and LES" and "Using Prepositional Pronouns With A" in Lesson 5.7: “'To Me' and ‘For Her’: Indirect Object Pronouns” should be helpful.

If either of you still have any questions, don't hesitate to let me know!

Saludos,

Liss
 

This is so helpful. Required with prepositional pronouns, can be used with names (but not required). Indirect and Direct Object Pronouns are definitely the hardest thing I have learned (nearly finished with Level 1 - will see about Level 2!), but I keep practicing and they seem to get easier.

Appreciate all your help Liss!

¡De nada, Scott_C! :) And they will indeed get easier the more you use them. ¡Ánimo!