Indirect Object Pronouns in Spanish

This article is one of a series called Spanish Tidbits for Beginners. Readers need a general working vocabulary base, as these lessons focus on specific grammar content.

The indirect object receives the action of the direct object. In English, John sends the letter to Paul, Paul is the indirect object receiving the action of the direct object letter. It indicates to whom or for whom an action is performed.Indirect object pronouns are pronouns which replace the nouns which are indirect objects, like Paul being replaced by him. This grammatical concept is true in Spanish, too.

In the above sentence, him is the indirect object and letter is the direct object. Him is the pronoun.

The same sentence in Spanish:

Juan envío la carta a Pablo. → Juan le envío la carta.

Here’s a sentence with for him instead of to him.

Le hago pan para él. I’m making bread for him.

Here, le means for him.

Many of the indirect object pronouns in Spanish are the same as the direct object pronouns, but a few are different. Remember that they need to agree in number and gender with the noun they replace. Here they are.

me

te

le

nos

os

les

What else is here? A él and para él, called prepositional pronouns, also mean to him and for him, respectively, are added for clarification or emphasis. They are not required in the sentences; they are merely useful, especially in the case of the third person in which we are not always certain whether the person is Ud., él, or ella. (Or, in the case of the plural, les, whether the persons are Uds., ellos, or ellas.)

If there are both third-person direct and indirect object pronouns in the construction, change the indirect object pronoun (in both singular and plural) to se.

Juan se la envío. Juan sends it (the letter) to him.

There is a word order employed when using pronouns. They take on the acronym RID, as follows: Reflexive, Indirect, Direct.

Here is the indirect object pronoun chart again, this time with prepositional pronouns.

me → a mí

te → a ti

le → a Ud./a él/ a ella

nos → a nosotros/a nosotras

os → a vosotros/a vosotras

les → a Uds./a ellos/a ellas

Exercise: Indirect Object Pronouns

Write the correct indirect object pronoun in the blank according to the underlined prepositional pronoun phrase at the end of the sentence. Notice that the last one has a girl’s name instead of a pronoun; what “person” would that be?

Yo ___________________ sirvo el almuerzo a ti. (I serve lunch to you.)

Ellos ___________________ dan las hamburguesas a nosotros. (They give burgers to us.)

Tú ___________________ miras a mí. (You are looking at me.)

Nosotros ___________________ tocamos la guitarra para Uds.(We play the guitar for you all.)

Ella ___________________ da el queso a Rita. (She gives the cheese to Rita.)

Answers: 1) te, 2) nos, 3) me, 4) les, 5) le