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Quiero verte and te quiero ver both mean the same thing and are both grammatically and syntactically correct. Other similar pairs that come to mind are:

  • Voy a llamarle vs. le voy a llamar
  • Puedes decirme vs. me puedes decir
  • me están llamando vs. están llamandome

I understand these are just two ways of saying the same thing but am still curious to know if one is still preferred over the other in real-life conversations. Is there any regional bias between the two? If regionalism does play a role, I would like to know which of the two syntaxes would a Latin American speaker typically use in regular street conversations.

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    I'm pretty sure there's a question on this topic already but I can't seem to find it. Maybe I just brought it up in a comment, though. Basically, historically proclisis wasn't allowed in main clauses, this favoring placement at the end. Modern Spanish makes little distinction, though my suspicion is that old customs die hard (voy a llamarles as more common in a main clause, Les voy a llamar as more common in subordinate). Pure speculation though so I'm not doing this as an answer
    – user0721090601
    Oct 1, 2015 at 5:44
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    In general, you use them indistinctly. I think it may be more related to regionalisms and how you are used to say it. But I read it one by one and it sounded like something I could say anytime.
    – makeMonday
    Oct 1, 2015 at 6:39
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    +1 for the regionalism bit. You'll find, specially in Latin America that there are countless ways to say pretty much the same thing. Right or Wrong? well it depends where you are.
    – Jax
    Oct 1, 2015 at 7:49

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You need to be careful tough, some verbs can change the meaning of the sentence. Example:

La princesa ordenó cantarle <-> La princesa le ordenó cantar.

The first one means that the princess gave someone the order to sing to her especifically. The second one means that the princess gave someone the order to sing, but says nothing about the target of that singing. Dificult question you have there :) the answer would be: some verbs can have that exchange and be just a matter of regional bias, some others really change their meaning.

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    Yeah, this is a problem that happens when one verb figures as another verb's direct object and each can logically take a different indirect object. The possibility tends to be pretty easy to catch though, because it's when the infinitive can have a different subject than the main verb (and thereby can be substituted with a nominal clause: La princesa ordenó que le cantase vs. La princesa le ordenó que cantase). Even crazier is when you front a direct object from cantar: La princesa se lo ordenó cantar :-)
    – user0721090601
    Oct 1, 2015 at 23:44

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