Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Object pronouns and possessives associated with vos

In modern usage the weak object pronoun and the possessives that corre-

spond to vosare the same as for tú, i.e. te, tuand tuyo:

Acordáte que fue idea tuya. Remember it was your idea.

¿Creés que venderás tu carro? Do you think you will sell

your car.

But vosand notti is used as the object of a preposition:

Estaba pensando en vos. I was thinking about you.

Leand lo

Many speakers in the Iberian Peninsula, particularly in the central and

northern areas, use leas the masculine singular direct object pronoun to

refer to a man. In Latin America, in contrast, with the exception of Ecuador

and Paraguay, most speakers almost always use loinstead (as in Andalusia

and the Canaries):

Peninsular usage Latin American usage

Le hice entrar. Lo hice entrar.

I made him go in. I made him go in.

Le llamé ayer. Lo llamé ayer.

I called him yesterday. I called him yesterday.

Uses of tenses

Sequence of tenses with the subjunctive

In some subjunctive constructions in Peninsular Spanish, for example after

verbs of influence, there is a strict sequence of tenses. In particular, a verb

in the preterite or imperfect in the main clause requires the imperfect sub-

junctive in the subordinate clause (see 12.4). In contrast, in many varieties

of Latin American Spanish, the present subjunctive would be acceptable in

this case, even if the action is envisaged as taking place in the past:

30.4.1

30.4

30.3

(^1111) 30.2.2
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

Uses of

tenses

309