Objectos Directos y Objectos Indirectos

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

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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"?

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.

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.