Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Ello

Ello is a neuter pronoun (translated as ‘it’, ‘this’ or ‘that’) which refers back

to something to which no gender can be ascribed, such as a statement or

concept. As a subject pronoun it is rarely used in speech, being replaced

normally by esto‘this’ or eso ‘that’:

Ello/Esto dio paso a un largo periodo de inestabilidad.

This gave rise to a long period of instability.

Subject pronouns to translate ‘it’s me’ etc.

The verb seragrees in person and number with the subject pronoun:

Soy yo, Juan. It’s me, Juan.

Somos nosotros quienes It’s we who invited Maria.

invitamos a María.

Direct and indirect object pronouns

Direct and indirect object pronouns in Spanish are weakpronouns that can

be used only in conjunction with verbs. Normally they precede finite verbs.

Compare Luis loha vistowith ‘Luis has seen him’ but see 8.5 on the posi-

tion of pronouns.

The direct object corresponds to whoever or whatever receives the direct

action of the verb (‘him’ in ‘They kicked him’), while the indirect object

corresponds to the beneficiary of the action (‘me’ in ‘They gave it to me’).

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8

Personal
pronouns

74

Forms of direct and indirect object pronouns

Direct and indirect object pronouns have identical forms except in

the 3rd person (lo, la, los, lasas opposed to leand les). Ustedand

ustedescorrespond to 3rd person object pronouns, so the distinction

also applies there.