Direct Object Pronouns in Spanish.

Direct object pronouns can be a little difficult to get the hang of, so let’s take this step-by-step, starting with the obvious question:

What the heck are direct object pronouns?

In grammar, the ‘object’ of a verb is the person or thing which ‘receives’ the action.  So, for example, if you slap your best mate, you are the subject of the verb (slap) and your best mate (not for long, probably) is the object of the verb.

In English the direct object pronouns are:

Me, You, Him, Her, It, Us, You, Them.

In Spanish we have:

*You may sometimes see Le and Les used as direct object pronouns instead of Lo/La and Los/Las, although in theory these are indirect object pronouns. More on that in a future class.

Now, at first glance that table can seem a bit confusing. So let’s have a look at some examples and then get into some grammar.

Example phrases with direct object pronouns

• Yo te vi anoche.
  I saw you last night.
• Yo la vi ayer
  I saw her yesterday.
• Nosotros los vimos hace una semana.
  I saw them a week ago.
• Vosotros las comprasteis ayer.
  You bought them yesterday.

Notice how the direct object pronoun goes AFTER the subject and IMMEDIATELY BEFORE the verb?

Let’s get rid of the subject…

Of course, we don’t usually use the subject in Spanish (we cover this in our class on subject pronouns) so it’s much more normal to see sentences like:

• Te vi anoche.
  I saw you last night.
• La vi ayer
  I saw her yesterday.
• Los vimos hace una semana.
  We saw them a week ago.
• Las comprasteis ayer.
  You bought them yesterday.

This part can be tricky for native English-speakers as the word order in Spanish is really quite different. To add to the confusion…

Word order – Pay attention!

Watch what happens when we use a pronoun instead of a noun or name..

• Visité el parque ayer.
  I visited the park yesterday.
• Lo visité ayer.
  I visited it yesterday.

Here is another example:

• Vimos la película hace dos semanas.
  We saw the film two weeks ago.
• La vimos hace dos semanas.
  We saw it two weeks ago.

And another:

• Sarah pegó a Marta.
  Sarah hit Marta.
• Sarah la pegó.
  Sarah hit her.

As a general rule, the object pronoun goes before the verb in Spanish, whereas a noun or name would go after the verb.

More grammar classes

Don’t forget that we have a whole section dedicated to Spanish grammar. No, don’t groan, you’ll love it!