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I saw an ad that says Sabores que encantarán a todos.
Annies-Encantan.jpg

I thought todos was the indirect object of encantar and therefore required the pronoun even if you also state the indirect object, this case todos, explicitly.

Can the les be omitted?

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    Does this answer your question? When is the indirect object pronoun required in sentences with an indirect object?
    – pablodf76
    Jul 1, 2021 at 19:02
  • @pablodf76 If todos is ineeded the indirect object, my understanding is les is required. After reading this, I am no longer certain of what I thought I learned 30 years ago: the le/les pronoun is always required when there's an indirect object. Sabores que encantan a todos sounds wrong to me, but I am not a native speaker. Jul 3, 2021 at 16:50
  • It's not common, but it's not wrong. The only (minor) problem of this is that it's ambiguous, since encantar can be a conventional transitive verb too. It's highly doubtful that someone could interpret this as if the flavours would put a charm (as in fairies or witches) over people.
    – pablodf76
    Jul 3, 2021 at 20:49
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    It means: Flavors that will enchant everyone, and therefore does not require les. However, if gustar is used, it will always require a pronoun.
    – Lambie
    Jul 8, 2021 at 16:45

1 Answer 1

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It's a pun, and may not be so easy to catch for all the Spanish speaking countries.

Means both they'll be charmed by the flavors and they will love the flavors.

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  • On the face of it your two suggestions are the same. Has something got lost in translation?
    – mdewey
    Jul 8, 2021 at 12:43
  • @mdewey, I think the difference is maybe subtle and that Lambie translated one half of it better, but I believe the distinction lies in who is interpreted as the subject/agent, i.e. flavors that will charm / enchant / put a spell on everybody vs. everybody will love the flavors. I think (could be wrong) that if les were included in the original phrase, the first interpretation might not work, since in that interpretation todos is a direct object (despite the "personal a", I believe), so if anything would use los (unless maybe this were a case of leísmo or something). Feb 12, 2022 at 21:29

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