Spanish indirect object pronouns: le, les and the se lo switch

Who the pronoun points at

The indirect object answers “to whom?” or “for whom?”. In Mandé el contrato a mi abogado, the contract is what I sent and the lawyer is who I sent it to, so the lawyer becomes le.

Notice that le covers him, her and formal you with a single form, which is the ambiguity Spanish solves in the next section. And unlike direct object pronouns, these do not change for gender: it’s le whether you’re talking about your father or your mother.

Why the pronoun is repeated

A mi madre le doy las gracias names the mother twice. It isn’t emphasis and it isn’t optional. Dar is the verb you’ll use most with these pronouns, and the dar conjugation is irregular in exactly the forms you see on this page: doy, di.

When the indirect object appears as a noun phrase with a, the pronoun comes too. Le mandé el correo a Marta. Les pagamos a los proveedores el viernes. Drop the pronoun and you get Mandé el correo a Marta, which is understandable but sounds off. In speech it barely happens.

The a phrase is what clears up le. Since le alone could be him, her or you, the phrase does the identifying: Le di el informe a él, Le di el informe a ella, Le di el informe a usted. You add it when context doesn’t already make the person obvious, and you leave it out when it does.

That same phrase also carries emphasis: A mí me parece bien is “I, for one, think it’s fine.”

Verbs that are built around the receiver

A whole family of Spanish verbs treats the person as the receiver rather than the doer, and they all run on indirect pronouns: gustar, encantar, interesar, doler, faltar, quedar, parecer, importar.

Me gusta el trabajo. Literally, the job is pleasing to me. A mi mujer le encantan los perros. Me duele la espalda. Nos faltan dos sillas. ¿Qué te parece la oferta?

The verb agrees with the thing, not with the person: Me gusta el café, but Me gustan los cafés de aquí. This is where English speakers say Yo gusto, which means “I am pleasing”, a different sentence entirely.

That whole group has its own page, gustar and the verbs built like it, with the two-form rule and the a phrase that names the person.

Reference chart

Two pronouns in one sentence, and where se comes from

When both pronouns appear, the indirect one goes first: me lo, te la, nos los. ¿El contrato? Me lo mandaron ayer. The second word in each pair comes from the direct object pronoun set: lo, la, los, las.

But le and les never sit next to lo, la, los, las. In that position they turn into se:

• Le di el informe + lo → Se lo di.
• Les mandé las facturas → Se las mandé.

This se has nothing to do with reflexive verbs; it’s a pronunciation fix that stuck. And because se hides who the receiver was, the clarifying phrase does more work than usual: Se lo di a él, Se lo di a ellos.

The pairs that change the sentence