Gramática · Construir oraciones · A2 · 15 min

Object pronouns

lo, le, lui, gli: little words from ILLE, and where they sit.

Por ahora, las explicaciones de esta sección están en inglés; los ejemplos están en todas las lenguas.

The 3rd-person pronouns of all six sisters descend from the Latin demonstrative ILLE 'that': ILLUM → lo / le / lo / o / îl / el, ILLAM → la (Portuguese a, Romanian o). Portuguese lost the l between vowels, as it did in nouns. The 'to him / to her' forms come from its dative ILLĪ: Spanish le, Italian gli, Portuguese lhe, Romanian îi, Catalan li; French lui comes from a spoken Latin dative *ILLUĪ.

	Spanish	French	Italian	Portuguese	Romanian	Catalan
me, you, us, you all	me, te, nos, os	me, te, nous, vous	mi, ti, ci, vi	me, te, nos, (vos)	mă, te, ne, vă	em, et, ens, us
him / it (m)	lo	le	lo	o	îl	el
her / it (f)	la	la	la	a	o	la
them	los, las	les	li, le	os, as	îi, le	els, les
to him	le	lui	gli	lhe	îi	li
to her	le	lui	le	lhe	îi	li
to them	les	leur	gli (formal: loro)	lhes	le	els

Spanish, French, Italian and Catalan put object pronouns before a conjugated verb: lo veo / je le vois / lo vedo / el veig. With infinitives, gerunds and affirmative commands, Spanish, Italian and Catalan attach them to the end of the verb (enclisis): verlo / vederlo / veure'l, dámelo / dammelo / dona-me'l. French attaches only to affirmative commands (donne-le-moi) and keeps them before an infinitive (je veux le voir). Portuguese splits by continent: Portugal attaches the pronoun after the verb in a plain statement (vejo-te, dá-me), Brazil puts it before, even at the start of a sentence (te vejo, me dá). Romanian puts it before every finite verb, sentence-first included (îl văd), and attaches it only to gerunds and affirmative commands (văzându-l, dă-mi-l).

Brazilian speech also thins the set out: for 'him, her, them' it mostly uses the subject forms (vi ele 'I saw him') or nothing at all, and lhe there usually means 'to you' (você). The forms in the table are the written and broadcast standard.

Lo vedo.
Lo veo.
Je le vois.
Eu o vejo.
Îl văd.
El veig.
I see him.
Brazilian speech: eu vejo ele. European Portuguese: vejo-o.
Voglio vederla.
Quiero verla.
Je veux la voir.
Quero vê-la.
Vreau s-o văd.
Vull veure-la.
I want to see her.
Spanish, Italian and Catalan may also lift the pronoun: la quiero ver / la voglio vedere / la vull veure. In vê-la the old l of ILLAM resurfaces after the infinitive's lost -r. Romanian uses să + subjunctive here, not an infinitive.
Le ho scritto ieri.
Le escribí ayer.
Je lui ai écrit hier.
Escrevi para ela ontem.
I-am scris ieri.
Li vaig escriure ahir.
I wrote to her yesterday.
Brazilian Portuguese says para ela where Portugal says escrevi-lhe. Romanian îi shrinks to i- before am.
L'ho vista.
La he visto.
Je l'ai vue.
Eu a vi.
Am văzut-o.
L'he vista.
I've seen her.
French, Italian and Catalan participles agree with a preceding la; Spanish visto does not. Romanian puts feminine o after the participle (but l-am văzut 'I've seen him'). Portuguese uses the simple past here.
Lo sto cercando.
Lo estoy buscando.
Je le cherche.
Estou procurando.
Îl caut.
L'estic buscant.
I'm looking for it.
Brazilian Portuguese simply leaves out an 'it' the listener can supply.
Dammelo.
Dámelo.
Donne-le-moi.
Me dá isso.
Dă-mi-l.
Dona-m'ho.
Give it to me.
Italian doubles the consonant after one-syllable commands: da' + me + lo → dammelo. Brazil puts me first even in a command (Portugal: dá-me isso). Catalan ho is a neuter 'it', from HOC.
Non dirmelo.
No me lo digas.
Ne me le dis pas.
Não me conta.
Nu-mi spune.
No m'ho diguis.
Don't tell me.
Negative commands: pronouns go back in front in Spanish, French and Catalan; Italian uses non + infinitive (also non me lo dire), and so does Romanian (nu-mi spune).

Two pronouns together

	Spanish	French	Italian	Portuguese	Romanian	Catalan
to you	te lo doy	je te le donne	te lo do	dou-to (Brazil: te dou isso)	ți-l dau	te'l dono
to him / her	se lo doy	je le lui donne	glielo do	dou-lho (Brazil: dou para ele / ela)	i-l dau	l'hi dono
to them	se lo doy	je le leur donne	glielo do	dou-lho (Brazil: dou para eles)	li-l dau	els el dono

'I give it to…'

Las hermanas

Order, doubles and disguises

Spanish, Italian, Catalan and Romanian always put the 'to whom' pronoun first: me lo, te lo, te'l, ți-l. French does too with me / te / nous / vous (me le), but puts le / la / les before lui / leur (le lui). Several sisters disguise 'to him' before lo. Old Spanish said gelo, from ILLĪ ILLUM; ge later became se, by analogy with the reflexive, hence se lo. Italian fuses gli and lo into one word, glielo, and uses it for 'to her' and 'to them' as well. Before lo / la / ne, Italian mi, ti, ci, vi also open to me, te, ce, ve. European Portuguese fuses lhe + o into lho; Brazil avoids pronoun pairs altogether. Romanian goes furthest the other way: a specific person as object is marked with pe and announced by a pronoun as well, o văd pe Maria 'I see Maria' (literally 'her I see pe Maria'), and an indirect object can be doubled too: i-am dat cartea lui Ion 'I gave Ion the book'.