Question

Hi I need some help regarding spanish. The problem I'm having trouble with direct/indirect sentences involving gift giving and receiving. As well as the pronouns me, te, le, nos, os, and les. example is Yo _______ muchos regalos a mi abuela How would i know which version of dar and which pronoun to put in.

Answer 1

You give something TO someone.
'something' is the direct objet, 'someone' is the indirect object.

You can always rephrase the sentence so that the indirect object is introduced by a proposition.

Example en English, the same holds for Spanish:

I gave her a kiss.
Rephrased: I gave a kiss to her
'a kiss' is the direct object; 'her' is the indirect object.

Yo doy un libro a mi hermano
Can you see the preposition 'a'?
I give a book to my brother
Can you see the preposition 'to'?

Even if you say: 'I give my brother a book', you must imagine that the developed version would be 'I give a book TO my brother'.

So in all cases 'mi hermano', 'my brother' are indirect objects.

This can be generalised to all sentences with prepositions that do not introduce time/place/manner information.
eg (in English):
I think of those moments. 'those moments' is indirect object
I'm talking to my teacher. 'my teacher' is indirect object.
I sing with my sister. 'my sister' is indirect object.

These sentences are easier because there is no direct object that could be mistaken with the indirect object.
When the noun is replaced by a pronoun, the preposition will be kept and the 'tónico' version of the pronoun will be used.

In sentences with 'dar', using the pronoun for the indirect object, you have two possibilities, either to keep or not to keep the preposition:

a + pronoun tónico :
a mí
a tí
a él, a ella, a usted
a nosotros
a vosotros
a ellos, a ellas, a ustedes

indirect pronoun:
me
te
le (only one version for masculine and feminine)
nos
os
les (only one version for masculine and feminine)