Le doy el regalo (a él).
I give him the present.Les envío la carta (a ellas).
I send them the letter.Le digo la verdad (a Ud.).
I tell you the truth.Les damos el mensaje (a Uds.).
We give you the message.As with the direct object pronoun, the indirect object pronoun comes in front of the verb.
If the verb is in the infinitive, the best thing at this stage is to add the pronoun directly to
the infinitive:
Voy a darle el libro (a él).
I am going to give him the book.If both a direct object pronoun and an indirect object pronoun occur in the same sentence,
the indirect pronoun is placed before the direct pronoun:
e.g. Juan me lo envía.
John sends it to me.
(^) Mis padres te lo dan.
My parents give it to you.
This also applies if the pronouns are added to the end of the infinitive:
Voy a dártelo.
I am going to give it to you.
Note that a stress mark now becomes necessary – see introductory section on
‘Pronunciation’.
There is one further detail that you need to be aware of and this is what happens when
there are two pronouns together, both beginning with l ... (e.g. le for ‘to him’ and lo for
‘it’). In such cases the first of the two pronouns is replaced by se, whether it is singular or
plural:
e.g. Juan se lo da.
John gives it to him/her/you.
If there is any possible ambiguity, a él, a ella, a usted, etc. can be added for clarity (see
above).
Object pronouns 83