In a sentence, a direct object is something that is directly acted upon by the verb. The underlined words below are examples of direct objects.
Yo mando las cartas. I send the letters.
Yo pongo la mesa. I set the table.
Marta y José hacen el trabajo. Marta and Jose do the work.
Mi amigo hace los quehaceres. My friend does the chores.
Direct object pronouns are used to replace direct objects. The direct object pronouns in Spanish are as follows.
|
English |
Spanish |
English |
Spanish |
|
me |
me |
us |
nos |
|
you |
te |
you (plural) |
os |
|
Him, her, it |
lo, la |
you (plural), them |
los, las |
Placement of the direct object pronouns
Direct object pronouns replace the direct object and usually go before the verb that was acting on the object. The only times the pronouns would go after the verb is in the case of infinitives, affirmative commands, and gerunds. When attaching them to commands and gerunds, you may have to add an accent mark. Here are a few examples of sentences with direct objects being rewritten with pronouns.
Yo mando las cartas. I send the letters. Yo las mando. I send them.
Yo pongo la mesa. I set the table. Yo la pongo.
Marta y José hacen el trabajo. Marta and Jose do the work. Marta y José lo hacen. Marta and Jose do it.
Mi amigo hace los quehaceres. My friend does the chores. Mi amigo los hace. My friend does them.
Conversations
These pronouns are most often used in conversations. This would be a weird conversation:
| José: ¿Puedes ver mis lentes?Marta: Sí, puedo ver tus lentes.José: Pues, ¿puedes agarrar mis lentes?Marta: Sí, puedo agarrar tus lentes.José: ¿Ya tienes mis lentes?Marta: Sí, tengo tus lentes.José: ¿Por qué seguimos diciendo “lentes”? | Jose: Can you see my glasses?Marta: Yes, I can see your glasses.Jose: Well, can you grab my glasses?Marta: Yes, I can grab your glasses.Jose: Do you have my glasses yet?Marta: Yes, I have your glasses.Jose: Why do we keep saying glasses? |
This would be how to make it more normal:
| José: ¿Puedes ver mis lentes?Marta: Sí, puedo verlos. (Sí, los puedo ver.)José: Pues, ¿puedes agarralos? (¿los puedes agarrar?)Marta: Sí, puedo agarralos. (los puedo agarrar)
José: ¿Ya los tienes? Marta: Sí, los tengo.
|
Jose: Can you see my glasses?Marta: Yes, I can see them.Jose: Well, can you grab them?
Marta: Yes, I can grab them. Jose: Do you have them yet? Marta: Yes, I have them.
|
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