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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) I   you   he   she   it   we   you   they   -

direct object (acusativo) me I see me.   you I see you.   him I see him.   her I see her.   it I see it.   us I see us.   you I see you.   them I see them.   -

indirect object (dativo) me I give me a book.   you I give you a book.   him I give him a book.   her I give her a book.   it I give it a book.   us I give us a book.   you I give you a book.   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 yo   tú   él   ella   **   nosotros nosotras   vosotros vosotras   ellos   ellas

direct object (acusativo) me Yo me veo   te Yo te veo   le / lo * Yo le / lo veo   la Yo la veo   **   nos Yo nos veo   os Yo os veo   les / los * Yo les / los veo   las Yo las veo

indirect object (dativo)   me Yo me regalo un libro   te Yo te regalo un libro   le Yo le regalo un libro   le Yo le regalo un libro   **   nos Yo nos regalo un libro   os Yo os regalo un libro   les Yo les regalo un libro   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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4.5 Declension with pronouns

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