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4.5 Declension with pronouns

As mentioned (once or twice) before the pronouns are a the interesting part in the declension. Later on we'll have a look at personal pronouns in connection with prepositions (chapter 4.12.), but first let's have look at the summary of declined pronouns:

English

basic form (nominativo)	direct object (acusativo)	indirect object (dativo)
I	me I see me.	me I give me a book.
you	you I see you.	you I give you a book.
he	him I see him.	him I give him a book.
she	her I see her.	her I give her a book.
it	it I see it.	it I give it a book.
we	us I see us.	us I give us a book.
you	you I see you.	you I give you a book.
they	them I see them.	them I give them a book.

No surprise here - there is no difference between direct and indirect object in English. In a first step you need to find out whether it is a direct or an indirect object. You have an indirect object if you form the sentence the way that you use the preposition to before the personal pronoun.

I give him a book. => I give a book to him.
here you have definitely an indirect object!

Spanish

nominativo	direct object (acusativo)	indirect object (dativo)
yo	me Yo me veo	me Yo me regalo un libro
tú	te Yo te veo	te Yo te regalo un libro
él	le / lo * Yo le / lo veo	le Yo le regalo un libro
ella	la Yo la veo	le Yo le regalo un libro
**	**	**
nosotros nosotras	nos Yo nos veo	nos Yo nos regalo un libro
vosotros vosotras	os Yo os veo	os Yo os regalo un libro
ellos	les / los * Yo les / los veo	les Yo les regalo un libro
ellas	las Yo las veo	les Yo les regalo un libro

* The differences between le and lo will be discussed in detail in chapter 4.7 .
** There are no neutral nouns in Spanish; therefore there is no need for a neutral personal pronoun

As you can see the differences between direct object and indirect object are not that big. They are to be found only in the third person (singular and plural).




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