I am studying Spanish with the Michel Thomas Method. It says that in Spanish, the gender is often not specified.
For example:
no lo compra - he/she is not buying
puede mandárselo - can you send it to him
It then says you can specify gender and gives the following example:
él no lo compra - He is not buying it
puede mandárselo a él? - can you send it to him?
¿Por qué no se lo dijo a él? - Why didn’t you tell it to him?
Él quiere que se lo mande. - He wants me to send it to him.
I am bit confused? Sometimes the gender is specified at the start, other times at the end.
How do you know where to position it?
¿Por qué no se lo dijo a él?
him is the subject so it goes at the end. But then inÉl quiere que se lo mande.
he is the subject, but it's at the start? Thanks for your help!¿Por qué no se lo dijo a él?
the subject is the person who "dijo",a él
mentions the person to whom this is applied (indirect complement). So you could say¿Por qué Juan no se lo dijo a él?
and Juan would be the subject, not "él".