Indirect and direct object, still confusing or not?

Hi. After having worked through the first 5 chapters of RS Beginner's grammar 3.0 I got a bit puzzled when reading the examples on the top of page 127, more specific example 2 and 5. 2. Ellos se los dicen. - They tell it to them. 5. Nosotros se los damos. - We give it to them. As I understand "se" could mean both to them, him, her and so on, so there's no problem with the indirect object but... In both the Spanish sentences "los" (plural) is direct object, right? In the English translation the direct objects are referred to as "it" (sing.) Shouldn't it say "them" like - They tell *them*(f.ex.the secrets) to them - and -We give *them* to them - ?? Am I completely lost or not? :shock: Confused

I think it is due to the fact that when an indirect obect pronoun is used with a direct object pronoun, if the indirect object pronoun is *le *or l*es*, then it changes to *se*. Alan

Thanks for your answer. But... It's not "se" and the indirect object, that bothers me. I still think that the plural of the direct objects "los" in the Spanish got lost in translation and became singular "it" in the English sentences. My opinion is still that the "it"s in both these sentences are direct objects. Greetings from Norway Chris

Chris, I agree with you. Perhaps the example was translated as "it" to avoid any confusion with the indirect object translation. Whatever the reason, I think you are correct. Or at least that is how I have come to understand it. S.L.

Let's cling to that :D , at least as long as no one proves otherwise. And.. thanks for replying. Chris