Direct Object Pronouns
I. Intro and Review
Previously we learned about subject-verb-object word order, and the role of the direct object in a sentence. In this lesson, we’re going to solidify and expand upon this knowledge.We saw that the primary purpose of any pronoun is to avoid unnecessary repetition of nouns, and to make speech easier and more fluid. Likewise, the purpose of a direct object pronoun is to avoid repeating the object over and over, once it has been established.
II. Personal “a”
Remember that a noun can be a person, place, thing, or idea, so a direct object can be any of those things.When the direct object of a sentence is a person, it must be preceded by the preposition “a”:
Thing as direct object:
| Llevo mi mochila a la escuela. I bring my bag to school. |
Person as direct object:
| Llevo a mi niño a la escuela. I bring my son to school. |
III. Word order
When the direct object noun of a sentence is stated (and not substituted by a pronoun), the sentence structure looks very similar to English: S-V-O.| Ana (S) | compró (V) | un libro (O). |
| Ana (S) | bought (V) | a book (O). |
However, once we are clear that we’re talking about a book, any subsequent times we refer to the book, we can simply use the pronoun “lo”. Direct object pronouns precede the verb in the sentence, so we then use the form S-O-V.
| Ana compró un libro. | Ana bought a book. |
| Lo compró para su amigo. | She bought it for her friend. |
| Lo puso en su mochila. | She put it in her bag. |
| Lo trajo a casa. | She brought it home. |
When we use a pronoun, we can’t put it at the end of the sentence like we do in English: “Ana compró un libro” is fine, but “Ana compró lo” is totally incorrect.