Indirect Object Pronouns

BooniesPete

BooniesPete

In the following three examples why bother using the indirect object pronoun? 1. Jenny le está escribiendo una carta a su padre. Why plug in "le"? It seems perfectly clear without it. 2. Carlos quiere darles algo a ustedes. Why add "les" to the infinitive "dar" when ustedes is perfectly clear? and 3. Le voy a llamar a Juan mañana. Simply saying "Voy a llamar a Juan manana" seems to make better sense. This grammar stuff isn't easy! Thanks for the help! Pete
nohablo

nohablo

[quo]*Quote from * BooniesPete In the following three examples why bother using the indirect object pronoun? [/quo] Hola Pete. The quick answer to your very reasonable question is "Just because." :wink: Every language does things that seem strange to speakers of another language, and the *redundant indirect object pronoun* is one of those things in Spanish. If you do a web search for Spanish redundant indirect object pronoun, you'll probably find lots of sites that discuss this. Dorothy Richmond's excellent book *Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions* offers a much fuller explanation, but at the end she says: "A final reason for using the redundant construction is that this is the way it's done. Perhaps this is not a satisfying answer in the rational sense; however, all languages, like all people, have their distinct charms that defy reason."

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