I felt I was making pretty good progress until I came to pronouns! :shock: I am confused by an example in the grammar book, on page 102. The sentence is "Ellos nos lo piden" and the translation is "They ask us for it." According to the rule that the indirect object pronoun goes first, followed by the direct object pronoun, why isn't it "Ellos le nos piden." Any help would be much appreciated! :D
Help! Pronouns!

(deleted)
February 24, 2008

nohablo
February 24, 2008
Hola. The verb *pedir *means "to ask _for._" Thus, "lo" is the direct object of pedir (it answers the question "_what_ are they asking for?"). "Nos" is the indirect object; it indicates to whom they are asking: nos. Thus, nos precedes lo. (It might help if you think of pedir as meaning "to request." Then I think it's clearer that "lo" is the direct object--lo is what they are requesting, and "nos" are the people to whom the request is made.)

(deleted)
February 24, 2008
Gracias!!! You are right, it really helps to think of "request" rather than "ask". Thanks!

nohablo
February 24, 2008
I'm glad you found it helpful. Thanks for letting me know.

nailteach
March 8, 2008
Having struggled with the order of pronouns in sentences myself, I came across this suggestion (somewhere)
*RID*
*R*eflexive
*I*ndirect
*Di*rect