I am trying to clear up in my mind the above theme.
I thought that the direct object always answered the question
What or Whom.
For example:
Paco hit Juan ----------> Paco le pega a Juan
Now I also thought that the direct object received the action
So in the above case I thought Juan was the direct object of the sentence.
Now in Spanish A quien/ Para Quien should give the indirect object
So that a quien would result in a Juan
So the question is is Juan a direct or indirect object.
Surely you cannot have a sentence that has a indirect object without a direct object.
I believe you can however have a direct object without an indirect object.
Can someone please clarify
Regards
Nev
Objectos Directos y Objectos Indirectos

nevjohnson
May 2, 2006

nohablo
May 2, 2006
Hola Nev. Like you, I'm just learning Spanish, but I'd like to
give this a try. I think that the "a" in the sentence is not the sign of an
indirect object, but rather the *"personal a"* that you use when
the direct object is a specific person (in this case, Juan). You
can find out more about this here:
*__http://spanish.about.com/cs/grammar/a/personal_a.htm__* .
In the sentence you asked about, Juan is the direct object. What
I don't understand is why the "le" is in the sentence. I know
about the use of "le" as a redundant indirect object pronoun (for
example, "Les di el regalo a los niños" - I gave the present to
the children), but I don't know what it's doing in the sentence
you quoted. I hope someone who knows more Spanish will
help out here, and correct what I've said if it's wrong.

nevjohnson
May 2, 2006
Nohablo,
Thanks for the link but I do not agree with the statement
"Known as the personal a, the short preposition is used to precede direct objects when those objects are people"
Check these sentence
Juan le dío dinero a Pepe
In this case dinero is the direct object and Pepe is the indirect object.
Thoughts and comments welcome as always.
Can anyone clarify the validaity of the aforementioned statement.
Regards
Nev

nohablo
May 2, 2006
Hola Nev. An "a" isn't _always _ the personal a. In the sentence you just offered, you're quite right: dinero is the direct object and Pepe is the indirect object. The "a" here means "to", whereas with the personal a, the "a" usually has no translation. Also, in the sentence you just offered, the "le" is the redundant indirect object pronoun that I mentioned earlier. Here, I understand its use; in the sentence in your original message, I didn't (and still don't) understand its function.
So, to sum up, I still think that the "a" in your first message is an example of the personal a, while the "a" in your second message has a different function.

taalibeen
May 3, 2006
Nohablo is correct on this one.
Another example of the "personal a":
Are you going to visit your mother?
Vas a visitar a tu mamá?
Verb: visitar
Direct object: mamá
You have to have the "a" preceeding mamá because the direct object is a person.
If the direct object was not a person, the "a" would not be included such as:
Are you going to visit the museum?
Vas a visitar el muséo?

Mauricio
May 4, 2006
Hello guys,
Good post, there a few good points coming out here. Have a look at this page, it may help clarify the original question... "is Juan a direct or an indirect object."
__http://www.rocketspanish.com/direct_indirect_object_pronouns.php__
Hope that helped.
Mauricio.

nohablo
May 4, 2006
Hola Mauricio. Thanks for the URL to the discussion. As always, it's very clear and helpful. I do have one question, though. One of the examples you use there is the following:
2. *Le muestra* la casa. He shows them the house.
Se la muestra. He shows them it.
Why do you say "*le* muestra" rather than "*les *muestra" for shows *them?*
Muchas gracias otra vez.

Mauricio
May 4, 2006
Hola Nohablo,
*Le* is refering to the person showing the house...
Hope that helps.
Mauirico.

nohablo
May 4, 2006
Hola Mauricio. Now I'm _really_ confused! :( How can "le" be a subject pronoun, the equivalent of él? And if "le" _does _refer to the person showing the house, what word in the sentence "Le muestra la casa" (He shows them the house) represents "them"?

Mauricio
May 4, 2006
Hola de nuevo...
You know, I'm just taking a second look at the sentence and I'm really sorry for having confused you...(you can take a point out of my score board for this one.. :oops: ) Le is meant to refer to the people the house is being shown to and you were absolutely right, the example was wrong, it should read "Les muestra la casa"... so if you have a look at that page again the example has been corrected... complements of Nohablo.
Nice work. Thanks.
Mauricio.

nohablo
May 5, 2006
Hola Mauricio. Thanks very much for your prompt and helpful clarification. I'm happy to know that I understood the sentence correctly. I'm also very impressed that you've already corrected the page.
Muchas gracias otra vez.