Dative pronouns

¿Me traes ese papel?

Besides accusative pronouns, Spanish has dative pronouns, which seem very similar. You already met both types before. There was a lesson about accusative pronouns, and the dative ones were introduced in the lesson about the verb gustar.

Apart from the verb gustar and alike, dative pronouns are used with many simple verbs. In this lesson you’ll find out more about dative pronouns, and how to distinguish them from their accusative siblings.

Let’s start with an example.

Escribo a Elena – I write to Elena

As you can imagine, this sentence can be reduced, using a pronoun instead of the girl’s name.

Le escribo – I write to her

However, here isn’t applied the accusative pronoun la, but the dative le.

In this case Elena is also an object, to which the action escribo is directed, but it’s not a direct object. This is an indirect object.

The direct object is when you do something: read a book, write a message.

The indirect object is when you do something to somebody: read a book to a child, write a message to Elena.

Accusative pronouns replace direct objects.

Dative pronouns replace indirect objects.

When you see a sentence like Yo escribo a Elena, and you start wondering whether it’s a direct or indirect object, try to add something as a direct object. For example, Yo escribo a Elena – Yo escribo a Elena un mensaje. If you succeed, the initial object a Elena is indirect. If you fail, the initial object is already direct.

Take a look at some other examples.

a. Yo digo a Carlos

This is an indirect object, because you can add a direct object, for example, una palabra.

Yo digo a Carlos una palabra

Now it’s possible to replace a Carlos with the dative pronoun le.

Digo a Carlos – Le digo

b. Yo llamo a Carlos

Here a Carlos is already a direct object, because you can’t add another direct object. It would be ok to say, that you tell him something, but it would be wrong to say, that you call him something.

Wrong: Yo llamo a Carlos una palabra

The initial sentence can be reduced only by using an accusative pronoun.

Llamo a Carlos – Lo llamo

Let’s now work only with indirect objects.

El señor López regala flores a sus hijas – Les regala flores

José compra dos helados a nosotros – Nos compra dos helados

El vendedor vende una tele a mí – El vendedor me vende una tele

In all these examples only dative pronouns are used, because only indirect objects have been replaced. It’s also possible to replace direct objects with accusative pronouns, but now we won’t do it. You’ll learn how to combine dative and accusative pronouns in the next lesson.

This is the list of all dative pronouns:

yo – me

tú – te

él – le

ella – le

Usted – le

nosotros – nos

vosotros – os

ellos – les

ellas – les

Ustedes – les

Try it yourself:

Miguel cuenta a sus amigos – …

El cliente pide al camarero – …

Yo explico a ti – …

Ella dice a mí – …

Almost all dative pronouns are exact copies of accusative pronouns. Maybe that’s better, because you have to learn less new forms. Despite this fact, these two types play different roles in a sentence, so you shouldn’t mix them up.

Excessive use of pronouns

As it was mentioned in the lesson about accusative pronouns, it’s not a very correct way to use just the prepositional pronouns as in the two last examples in the try-it-yourself block above.

Wrong:

Yo explico a ti

Ella dice a mí

Right:

Yo te explico

Ella me dice

Prepositional pronouns come in handy to specify a person, if it’s not clear.

For example, if you say Le compro flores, without context it’s not clear to whom exactly you buy flowers – to him, to her or even to some señor, treating him by usted.

If you add a prepositional pronoun, the person becomes clear.

Le compro flores a ella

Extending such sentences with prepositional pronouns is very common in Spanish. Even when they are not really needed.

Ella me dice una palabra a mí

Susana nos pide ayuda a nosotros

Instead of prepositional pronouns, there can be a noun or a person’s name with the a preposition.

Le compro flores a Elena

It’s the same as Compro flores a Elena.

Le recomendamos este café a un turista

Paula les cuenta una historia a sus padres

This is very typical for Spanish.

Try it yourself:

El profesor enseña a los alumnos = …

La gente os aconseja ese bar = …

No digo nada a Josefina = …

Te regalo un reloj = …

¿Nos trae dos cervezas? = …