Modern Spanish Grammar: A Practical Guide

(lily) #1
Se (= le or les) la entregamos.
We handed it over to her/him/them/you.

8.3 Reduplicated pronoun structures


(a) Spanish sometimes uses both an unstressed pronoun (e.g. me) and an equivalent
prepositional phrase with a stressed pronoun (e.g. a mí) in order to avoid ambiguity,
or for emphasis:
¡Dáselo a ella!
Give it to her! (se is otherwise ambiguous between ‘him’, ‘her’, ‘them’,
‘you’)
Me critico a mí mismo.
I’m criticizing myself.
(b) An unstressed indirect object pronoun is often used with a full noun indirect object
which refers to a person:
Dile a Paco que se ponga (al teléfono). (29.8.2)
Ask Paco to come to the phone.

¿Quéle parece a tu padre? (55.3)
What does your father think?
(c) An unstressed pronoun must be used if a direct or indirect object noun or stressed
pronounprecedes the verb:
Amis primos no les gustan los deportes.
My cousins don’t like sports.
Amí me parece que sería peligroso.
It seems to me that it would be dangerous.
Este libro lo leí la semana pasada.
I read this book last week.

Reduplicated pronoun structures 8.3

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