32
votes
All about datives, or: What's that funny "le" or "me" doing in there?
The dative case is commonly known as the grammatical case of indirect objects (the secondary object of ditransitive verbs like dar), and it is marked in Spanish by the use of special pronouns (me, te, ...
21
votes
Accepted
What is the grammatical explanation of "sí" in "entre sí"?
"Sí" is also the reflexive form of the third person pronouns (él, ella, ellos, ellas), which must always be preceded by a preposition. This "sí" is completely unrelated (has different etymology) to ...
- 12.1k
15
votes
If someone asks a question using “quién”, how can one shortly respond?
English is, I believe, somewhat odd in allowing the oblique pronouns in the responses like that (but that's actually evidence for them being the default, and the subject pronouns being the exception, ...
- 30k
14
votes
Is the sentence "La pelota es roja. La niña juega con la" correct?
The correct sentence would be
La pelota es roja. La niña juega con ella.
The pronoun la is the clitic non-emphatic object pronoun. Third-person object pronouns are not used after prepositions like ...
- 39.4k
12
votes
Accepted
"los dos de usted" or "los dos de ustedes": Which one is correct?
Both "los dos de usted" and "los dos de ustedes" do not make much sense. "los dos de usted" is even gramatically incorrect, since "usted" should be plural, as you mention in the question.
To me, the ...
- 34k
12
votes
What's the difference between "ti" and "te"?
Ti and te are both second person singular pronouns, the equivalent of English singular you in object position. The difference has to do with emphasis.
Te is the non-emphatic pronoun. It is clitic, i. ...
- 39.4k
12
votes
If "dar" means "to give", what does "daros" mean?
It's the second person plural object pronoun 'os' (as opposed to the subject pronoun 'vosotros'). It means 'you (plural)'. You would also use it where in English you might use 'to you' or 'for you' ...
12
votes
Accepted
Redundant indirect object pronoun: is "le" redundant in "preguntémosle al estúpido / a él"?
TL;DR
The redundant le is only optional if a noun acts as indirect object and that noun is placed after the verb: otherwise, it is mandatory. However, in spoken speech, the redundant le is almost ...
11
votes
Why don't we put subject pronouns "you", "I" in questions? e.g."¿cómo tú estás?"
In Spanish you can omit the subject in sentences when it is known or it can be inferred from context or the verb. In the case you show, the subject is inferred from the verb.
This is the present ...
- 77.4k
10
votes
What is the etymology of the pronoun "usted"? What formal pronouns existed before?
Usted is derived from "vusted", an archaic shortening of "Vuestra Merced", an old Spanish way of saying [lit.] "your mercy" (similar to the honorific "your grace").
From the Diccionario de la lengua ...
- 201
10
votes
Accepted
What does "¿Que es eso?" mean?
The words qué, cuál/es, quién/es, cómo, cuán, cuánto/a/os/as, cuándo, dónde y adónde are written with acute accent (tilde diacrítica) when used in an interrogative or exclamatory manner.
You can read ...
- 10.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Using "están" vs "estás" when refering to "you"
The sentence given by memrise is correct, since the implied subject is "ustedes." Think of the case where a waiter was asking a group of patrons at a restaurant. I'm assuming your confusion is simply ...
- 156
10
votes
Agreeing with the complement not the subject: esto son, eso son, lo mejor son
I think the answer is easy: what you think is the predicate is in fact the subject. The sentences are just inverted. If you turn them over, you get:
Los avisos son lo mejor de la televisión.
Los ...
- 77.4k
10
votes
Accepted
¿"No lo es" con objeto femenino?
Según la NGLE (37.1i-37.1k), los atributos de los verbos copulativos como parecer se sustituyen por el pronombre neutro lo independientemente de su género y número.
- 39.4k
10
votes
Accepted
Word order with pronouns and adverbs in Spanish
In modern Spanish, unstressed pronouns (that is, me, te, se, le, lo, la, nos, os, les, los, las) must always come either directly before (with a space) or directly after (without a space) a verb.
By ...
- 30k
10
votes
Is it regular grammar to use pronoun 'él' as 'it'?
Preposition + "él"/"ella" is a perfectly normal construction.
Nominative personal pronouns (like "él" and "ella") are seldom used in Spanish, except when they refer to people, and even then they are ...
9
votes
Accepted
Is this sentence grammatically correct? "te deseo todo la suerte en el mundo"
Your first option is almost the right one. Just two notes:
"Todo" must agree in gender with "suerte", which is feminine. So it is "toda la suerte".
In Spanish we say "del mundo", as if the luck were ...
- 77.4k
9
votes
Accepted
When to use an indirect object pronoun rather than a direct object pronoun?
Very generally speaking, a direct object completes or specifies the meaning of the verb, while an indirect object adds a destination, a goal, someone or something towards which the action is oriented. ...
- 39.4k
8
votes
What does "¿Que es eso?" mean?
I'll be the contrarian here.
¿que es eso? is a valid Spanish construction and distinct from ¿qué es eso?
With the accent, the phrase means "What is that?" because qué is an interrogative pronoun. ...
- 30k
8
votes
Accepted
Why does "hay" have no pronoun?
No, it doesn't have anything to do with its etymology, although it's an interesting one. It's just that haber is an impersonal verb per se. Follow the previous link and look for the meanings marked as ...
- 77.4k
8
votes
What is "le" referring to in "preguntarle a las personas"?
Yes, the pronoun le in the sentence you quote is referring to las personas. Note that it is the indirect object, as guifa's answer explains.
The pronoun should agree in number with the noun, so the ...
- 4,423
8
votes
Why, in "mis padres se llaman __", do you need "se"?
Yo me llamo Diego. Mis padres (ellos) se llaman __ y __
Se is just the third person pronoun, like me is the first person pronoun.
I don't know what is your mother tongue, but since you seem fluent ...
- 48k
8
votes
¿Cómo conjugo verbos con el pronombre indefinido "One"?
A pesar de que se puede usar uno tal y como en inglés (y así usando la 3.ª singular del verbo), como debe de ser obvio por el primer verbo en esta oración, el español te permite usar el verbo en forma ...
- 30k
8
votes
Accepted
Conjugation rule for "enclitic pronouns"?
A full answer would require the equivalent of a few Spanish course classes, so I'll just clear the basics up.
What you found are combinations between verbs and pronouns. These are not different ...
- 39.4k
8
votes
Accepted
¿Qué es lo correcto, "Dejar de verte" o "Dejarte de ver"?
Pues lo mismo da, que da lo mismo: ambas son correctas.
De ¿Volver a verte o volverte a ver?
Cuando tenemos una perífrasis verbal (dos o más verbos que funcionan juntos como si fueran uno solo) junto ...
- 34k
8
votes
Accepted
Can someone explain the construction of 'siempre lo arruina todo'?
It is redundant, but it's not wrong. It's also not compulsory to include it there. You could say, correctly:
Siempre arruina todo.
For all practical matters this means the same as with lo (see ...
- 39.4k
8
votes
¿Cómo se pronunciaban infinitivos ligados a pronombres con doble ele?
Cuando leíamos el Quijote hace un par de años en un grupo de Twitter surgió este asunto y yo pensé inicialmente que se trataba de una /l/ doble o geminada, como la del catalán (más allá de que ...
- 39.4k
8
votes
Accepted
In a declarative statement, why would you put a subject pronoun at the end of a sentence or verb phrase?
First, as you may know, automatic translators nowadays do not so much translate but look up people's (presumably correct) translations and try to infer patterns; that is, if a lot of available ...
- 39.4k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible