Pronouns

Im having a little difficulty with the beginners book section on direct and indirect pronouns. I study it every day and Im still a little shaky. Does anyone know of any learning techniques that I could use to learn this material faster? P.S. It would be nice to have a quiz at the end of each lesson at this level rather than just one quiz at the end of each unit. :D

Hi, For your info, I am a teacher . I teach English ( vocal ) The only way I can see that you are going to learn faster is split your learning sessions. 1 time 60 minutes is good 2 times 30 minutes is better 3 times 20 minutes should be best. ( like 20 min in the morning, 20 min lunchtime, ....) Got the idea ?? Give it a try for a month. please note this is not true for every one, but my students follow my advice and they are all number ones in their class. good luck

When I am speaking Spanish, my brain still wants to put those darn adjectives in front of the nouns. I'm just starting to get the hang of it now and feeling pretty good about how it is taking less and less concious effort to make this reversal. However, direct/indirect object pronouns are even tougher for me because they come before the verb. By the time I get the nouns, adjectives and verbs out of my mouth, I've already gone past where I should have inserted the darn pronoun. Oh well, this is going to take a while !! I have a question about attaching the indirect object pronoun onto the end of the verb. Why is this sometimes done? Does is make the pronounciation of the sentence eaiser? Does it change the meaning? Are there times when this would not be appropriate? For example: Le quiero comprar un regalo Quiero comprarle un regalo

[quo]*Quote from * tocayo When I am speaking Spanish, my brain still wants to put those darn adjectives in front of the nouns. I'm just starting to get the hang of it now and feeling pretty good about how it is taking less and less concious effort to make this reversal. However, direct/indirect object pronouns are even tougher for me because they come before the verb. By the time I get the nouns, adjectives and verbs out of my mouth, I've already gone past where I should have inserted the darn pronoun. Oh well, this is going to take a while !! I have a question about attaching the indirect object pronoun onto the end of the verb. Why is this sometimes done? Does is make the pronounciation of the sentence eaiser? Does it change the meaning? Are there times when this would not be appropriate? For example: Le quiero comprar un regalo Quiero comprarle un regalo[/quo] I can completely relate to your frustration as I have been working very hard on the direct/indirest object pronouns. As I understand it thus far, both of your examples are correct. There are two verbs in those statements. The first is conjugated and the second is left in the infinitive. The IOP can either be placed before the first (conjugated) verb or attached to the second (infinitive). The second example works better for my English speaking mind as it's sytax is more like the way we would express it in English. However, since the "le" is the third person it needs clarification: who? you, him, her?

I was in a Mexican restaurant last night and I asked the waiter, "¿Puedo tener mas agua, por favor?" His face lit up and he replied "Claro!" Then he said "That was almost perfect." I asked him how I could have asked it better. He said I should have asked "¿Me puedes darme mas agua?" My question is, why would me be used twice? It seems redundant.

If that is what was said, it is incorrect. Me puede(s) dar mas agua Puede(s) darme mas agua Podria(s) darme mas agua Me podria(s) dar mas agua Those are the valid ways to ask that. This answer courtesy of my fiancée from Puerto Rico.

Thanks for the reply Taalibeen. Your examples make more sense to me. I was really confused as to why one would use the pronoun twice but that is what he said. I asked him to repeat it to make sure I understood. I was thinking it might be one of those times you can't use English grammar rules to explain Spanish usage. By the way, the waiter told me that now that he knows I'm learning Spanish, the next time I come in we will only speak Spanish.

Well all of us who are fairly educated native English speakers know that we do not always speak completely grammatically correct - so maybe that's just what happened in that case.

I know this thread is over six months old but I'm just now getting to the lessons on pronouns so this topic makes more sense to me now. Regarding Msticker's conversation with the Mexican waiter - it seems to me that, whether the waiter's grammar was technically correct or not, there is a fundamental difference in the way he restated the question. Msticker said "Can I have more water..." and the waiter suggested he should have said "Can you give me more water..." So, aside from the grammar, why would the second be more proper? Thanks, Dave

I really don't think either is more correct. My fiancee is from Puerto Rico and I'll be happy when I can speak and understand Spanish as well as she can English. I say that becuase sometimes she says something in English, and I understand exactly what she's saying, and from the standpoint of grammar - there's absolutely nothing wrong with what she said - BUT, it may not be the way I would express it, or the way most native speakers would express it - despite its grammatical correctness. So in the case mentioned above, that's probably what the waiter picked up on. Not necessarily that there was something grammatically wrong, but that that wasn't the way a native would have expressed it.

I wondered if it might be something like that. Thanks for the clarification.