Unstressed object pronouns are used in Spanish to sustitude direct and indirect objects, it's one of the trickies structures in Spanish and even native speakers can missuse them, so you must be carefull when dealing with them. They can be translated sometimes as: me, you, him, her, it, us and them, however you must be aware that they don't have exactly the same meaning.

To be able to use correctly unstressed object pronouns you must be able to recognize fastly when a phrase contain either an object or indirect object. An direct object is the object which receives the action of a verb, it can be discovered by asking ¿what? ¿whom? to the verb. Example: Pepe eats fish | Pepe come pescado (what does Pepe eat?)

do (direct object) = fish = pescado

Exercises: Find out the direct object of the following phrases:

> Juan loves Maria | Juan ama a María

> Carlos fixes computers | Carlos repara computadoras

> The policeman saw the thiefs / El policia vio a los ladrones

The indirect object is whom take the action of the direct object, and it can be discovered by asking ¿to whom? ¿for whom?. Example: Lucas buys a watermelon for Sandra / Lucas compra una sandía para Sandra

do (direct object) = a watermelon = una sandía

io (indirect object) = for Sandra = para Sandra

Exercises: Find out the direct and indirect object of the following phrases:

> Margarita made coffe for Marcos / margarita hizo café para Marcos

> Alba gave some tips to her son / Alba dio unos consejos a su hijo

> The boss told the workers to arrive earlier / El jefé dijo a los trabajadores que llegaran más temprano

Once you're able to identify the existence of an direct|indirect object in a phrase you will be able to use the appropiate pronoun. Use the following table to identify which pronouns can be used:

http://i.imgur.com/kYv9S0p.png

Example: Pepe eats fish | Pepe come pescado

do=fish=pescado, pescado refears to an animal in third person singular (he, the fish), therefore you must use 'lo' and replace the phrase as follows:

Pepe lo come (most of the times, the object pronouns must be located before the main verb)

Let's review other example: Juan loves Maria | Juan ama a María

do=a Maria, Maria refears to a person in third person singular (she, Maria), therefore you must use 'la' in the sentence:

Juan la ama

Exercises: Replace the direct object in the following senteces with the appropiate pronoun:

> ¿Did you find  your mother's ring? | ¿Has encontrado el anillo de tu madre?

> Roberto paid a lot of money for his new car | Roberto pagó mucho dinero por su nuevo carro

> A friend will translate the book | Un amigo traducirá el libro

The same technique can be used to replace indirect objects, Example:

Lucas buys a watermelon for Sandra / Lucas compra una sandía para Sandra

od=a watermelon = una sandía

id=for Sandra=para Sandra

Sandra refears to a third person in singular (she, Sandra), and it can be replaced with 'le' because it's an indirect object and not a direct object (in that case it would be replaced with 'la')

Lucas le compra una sandía

Exercises: Replace the indirect object in the following senteces with the appropiate pronoun:

> Tomorrow I'll give the money to Eduardo | Mañana entregaré el dinero a Eduardo

> I bought a gift for you | Compré un regalo para ti

> The donations this year will be given back to the contributers | Los donativos de este año serán devueltos a los contribuyentes

You can replace both, the direct and the indirect objects with pronouns however an additional rule must be learn, whenever you want to put together a 'lo' and 'le', you must replace the second one (indirect object) with 'se'. Example: Lucas buys a watermelon for Sandra | Lucas compra una sandía para Sandra

od=a watermelon = una sandía

id=para Sandra=for Sandra

Lucas la compra para Sandra (replacing the direct object)

Lucas le compra una sandía (replacing the indirect object)

Lucas se la compra (replacing both, the direct and indirect objects, pay attention to the 'se' which replaces 'le' for the indirect object)

keywords, palabras clave: leismo, laismo, loismo, objeto directo, objeto indirecto

If you've questions or want to practice Spanish, let me know =)