April 5, 2011

Oye Chicos! Today we learned about OBJETOS DIRECTOS!!

The only one that is weird is "Lo" because the other three are "La" "Las" and "Los"

In English, this topic makes sense:

Did you see Ana?
you=subject
see (with the helping verb that they don't use in Spanish)=verb
Ana= direct object

but you can of course always change a noun to a pronoun:

Yes I saw her.
her= direct object pronoun.

So lets look at this same sentence in Spanish:

¿Tú viste a Ana?
Tú=sujeto
viste=verbo
Ana = objeto directo

Podemos cambiar el nombre a un pronombre...
Sí, la vi.
la= pronombre de objeto indirecto

Let’s try it with each of the pronouns:

1. ¿Él tuvo el libro? No, no lo tuvo.
2. ¿Los estudiantes comieron las hamburguesas? Sí, las comieron.
3. ¿Compramos los videojuegos? No, no los compramos.

Notice, the pronoun goes BEFORE THE CONJUGATED VERB!!! (that is different than in English… so pay attention to it.

I wish I could say it stops there, but it doesn’t. If you have two verbs in a sentence, one conjugated and one not, then you can play around with the location of the pronoun. For example:

I could not see it (the movie) = No, no la pude ver. OR = No, no pude verla.
I have to read it (the book) = Lo tengo que leer. OR = Tengo que leerlo.

Notice that your two options are to put it in front of the conjugated verb, like normal, or you can attach it to the end of the verb in the infinitive!! (That seems more normal to us, because it follows English. It is also what you will hear most often)

*What if the verb is a COMMAND? Like “Read it” or “Do it” or “Look at it”??
Then you attach it to the end of the verb in the command form:
“Léalo” “Hazlo” “Míralo” But this is for another time.