Grammar Talk: Object Pronouns

In English, the existence of formal grammar rules put forth by any number of style guides or linguists rarely enforces how language is used (written or spoken). Even the Spanish language, which has an official governing body in the Real Academia Española (RAE), exhibits a grammar that is open to interpretation on many points. This inability for even academics to come to agreement on grammar points, along with the number of geographically dispersed places where Spanish is spoken, makes some grammar topics extremely difficult for foreigners to grasp due to the number of distinct variations accepted.

I have learned Spanish in formal classroom settings in the U.S., by living in Mexico, and now while working in Ecuador, and I can say from experience that no one set of rules is sufficient for understanding the language as it is used in different parts of the world. These differences are not only limited to regional vocabularies, but include fundamental language devices like pronoun usage and gender forms that have not-so-obvious implications beyond simple word choice.

With the new feature on my blog "Grammar Talk", I hope to elucidate some of the finer points of the Spanish language that I have gleaned from living abroad and reading up on my formal Spanish grammar. Along with the Internet and the forums at WordReference.com, the greatest tool for learning about Spanish grammar that I have ever encountered is "A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish" by John Butt and Carmen Benjamin (B&B). The book provides a thorough treatment of every grammar point I have ever consulted it for thus far, and it is commendable for its coverage of the Spanish used throughout the world, not only in one particular place (Latin American Spanish or Peninsular Spanish, for instance). It is this broad consideration of the various forms of Spanish that has made B&B particularly useful for me when, for instance, the Mexican Spanish I learned in college fails to help me understand a sentence from an Argentinian text.

My goal in studying Spanish is to speak it in a way that is generally understood and accepted as correct by the most number of native Spanish speakers possible. I am cautious of Spanish that is specific to a small region because what is acceptable as educated Spanish in one country might sound foolish in another country. Because of this, I am not content to simply mimic the Spanish of the people around me, but to develop a way of speaking that will serve me just as well when I leave Ecuador.

Some aspects of languages are not easily learned in books and are best understood after spending time abroad. As a student of Spanish, I find that the best advice always comes from people who have lived immersed in the Spanish language long enough to appreciate a grammar point and then are able to verbalize their understanding in English. I hope that these posts will provide a similar kind of help.

In short, Grammar Talk is written for people interested in Spanish grammar, and will therefore probably only be enjoyable for those studying Spanish. I majored in Spanish in college (and took one semester of Linguistics... which counts for something, right?), but I am far from an expert in the grammar of any language. If I make an error or anyone reading disagrees with my conclusions, please leave a comment so I can learn from my mistakes or write a snarky reply burning you for trying to call me out.

Subjective Objects

When I was learning Spanish in school, I was always taught that there are two sets of object pronouns in Spanish: one set for direct objects and one set for indirect objects. Luckily, the first-person and informal second-person singular object pronouns me, nos, and te are the same for both sets. This means that the only object pronouns that should give foreign speakers any trouble are the third-person object pronouns lo/la/los/las and le/les (which, it is worth mentioning, are also used for formal second-person singular/plural and informal second-person plural).

Using object pronouns in spontaneous speech has always been difficult for me because of Spanish's double set of object pronouns that force me to think about the nature of the object (direct/indirect, masculine/feminine, singular/plural) before I decide which pronoun to use. Regardless of how long it takes me to construct a sentence, I like to think that I have a good understanding of how to use the object pronouns correctly. This is, of course, until I hear an utterance like "Le vi anoche (a usted)."

This is a sentence I heard someone say here in Ecuador, which doesn't make any sense if the direct/indirect object distinction dictates which object pronoun is correctly used. The speaker saw someone, so in this case the person who was seen was the direct object of the action and the sentence should read "Lo vi anoche", right?

Well, it turns out that object pronouns have been a constant topic of controversy (even within the RAE) for decades, and there are a number of exceptions to the over-simplified direct/indirect object dichotomy.

Indirect Respect

The above example can best be explained by the tendency of some Spanish speakers to use the indirect object pronouns when referring directly to a person (even when that person is the direct object of an action) as a sign of respect for the person. B&B provides a fascinating example of this phenomenon in usage:

"Argentine informants were convinced that they would say no quería molestarle 'I didn't mean to bother you' when speaking to their boss, but molestarlo when speaking about him."

I support this usage, not because I understand why it comes off as more respectful to use le (although how much could it hurt to try to be more respectful anyway?), but because the direct object pronoun lo can mean a variety of things, the least likely of which is the formal second-person singular usted. For instance, if someone said to me "Lo vi ayer", the first translation I would think of are the third-person singular translations "I saw it yesterday" or "I saw him yesterday." For me, using le in place of lo/la when the object is a person being directly talked to is helpful because in the absence of leísmo (which I'll talk about later), it eliminates the interpretation of lo meaning "him" or "it", and it alerts the listener that he is being referred to, rather than leaving the frustratingly ambiguous lo up for interpretation.

As I am finding out, most of the problems I have with Spanish come from overworked pronouns and their ambiguities...

Leísmo and Laísmo

Outside of using le to show respect for the person you are talking to, there is also a tendency for some Spanish speakers to always use the indirect object pronoun for third-person singular male humans . This phenomenon is known as leísmo. For instance, "Lo vi" is reserved strictly for "I saw it", while "Le vi" is used to express "I saw him." Female humans continue to receive the ambiguous direct object pronoun, and "La vi" is used for "I saw her" as well as "I saw it."

B&B notes that this flavor of leísmo is considered by some to be sexist, since men are "elevated" to indirect object status while women  are referred to using the same pronoun that inanimate objects also take. A more explicitly sexist variation of this object pronoun style is known as laísmo. In this phenomenon, human females are referred to using the object pronoun even if they are indirect objects, for instance "Yo la dije la verdad" (I told her the truth).

B&B discourages the use of laísmo because it is controversial and in decline, but notes that leísmo is used by "the most prestigious styles in Spain, i.e. the variety used in publishing, the media, and by most educated speakers in central and northern Spain."

To me, laísmo is clearly not worth imitating, but I also don't recommend that foreigners learning Spanish adopt leísmo unless they live in Spain because it doesn't really clear up any ambiguities like using le for respect (as a matter of fact, it greatly eliminates the usefulness of using le for respect because with leísmo, "Le vi" can mean "I saw you" or "I saw him"). Of course, it is still useful to have a knowledge of these conventions for understanding the speech and writing of others.

In any case, if you're in the club and you're trying to find the words to describe a girl without being disrespectful, go easy on the leísmo/laísmo and stick with the indirect object pronouns. 

Leísmo in Ecuador

In Ecuador, I have observed an extreme form of leísmo where the indirect object pronouns are used for humans of both genders and inanimate objects that are direct objects. For instance, the other day my host nephew asked for a glass of soda right before we got in the car. His sister handed him a cup and said, "Tómale rapido" (Drink it quickly).

B&B notes that this usage is not endorsed by the RAE unless it is "a rare instance of genuine personification." I agree that leísmo for inanimate objects is unnecessary and should not be imitated by foreign learners (even though I hear it all the time here). 

In another instance, my host sister-in-law wanted her brother to pick up her baby girl, so she commanded him "Cógele." While the leísmo in Ecuador at least appears to be less sexist than other varieties, I still maintain that it is unnecessary for foreign learners to adopt and should only be noted so that native speakers can be understood.

Conclusion

Object pronouns in Spanish cannot be easily explained by any one rule, but the direct/indirect object distinction is a good place to start. It is also impossible to say that one style of usage is absolutely correct because there are so many different accepted usages depending on what country, and even what part of that country, you are in. What I have written here are only a few of the points that I found interesting in the thirteen(!) pages of B&B that deal with the correct usage of object pronouns. I haven't even mentioned loísmo, which substitutes direct object pronouns for indirect object pronouns, or my own original grammar style that I am proposing to the Academy, noísmo, which rejects object pronouns and their confusing ambiguous bullshit altogether.

If object pronouns still don't make sense and are getting you down, remember this: just like it's always 5 o'clock somewhere, regardless of what object pronoun you end up using in a sentence, it is almost certainly considered standard usage in some part of the hispanophone world.