¡Te la llevo mañana!”
“Se lo dije mil veces…”
“¿Me lo prestas?”
“Nos lo compró ayer.”
I remember being thoroughly confused by these ‘me te se nos lo la combinations when I was learning Spanish.
But with a bit of practice, it becomes easy and automatic.
Today, I’ll show you how, and we’ll do a bit of practice.
It to you I explain
Let’s start with a straightforward case:
Te lo compré ayer.
I bought it for you yesterday.
To understand this, let’s start at the end:
ayer: yesterday
compré ayer: I bought yesterday
lo compré ayer: I bought it (it I bought) yesterday.
→ What does “lo” refer to here? Un regalo, un celular, un lápiz, un auto… anything masculine, or just a generic it (an example on this in a minute). If it referred to una camisa or una cafetera, it would be la compré ayer.
te lo compré ayer: for you it I bought yesterday
→ What’s te doing here? te = for you/to you
So the order goes: Person, Thing, Verb.
You can remember this because it’s alphabetical (PTV)
So….
✅ “Te lo compré”
❌ “Lo te compré”
Sometimes you CAN see these words in different positions in a sentence- more on that in a minute.
Here’s another example using lo, but the lo is generic:
te lo dije ayer: I told you yesterday
Here, lo refers to “it” – the thing I told you. There’s no gender, so we can stick with a generic ‘lo’.
“To you + it + I told yesterday
Try it out
So if I wanted to say, “I gave it to you yesterday”…
How would I say that? (I gave = di)
.
.
[answer in P.S.]
La, los, las
Many times, it’s not lo, but instead la. Why?
Because the “it” refers to something feminine or a female person:
¿La computadora? Te la regalé el año pasado
The computer? I gave it to you last year.
And what about when we see los and las? We use those when “it” is plural…
Las computadoras? Te las regalé el año pasado
Los archivos? Te los mando más tarde
Try it out
How would you say… “The presents? I bought them for you yesterday”
(presents = los regalos)
.
.
[answer in P.S.]
Me, nos, os, se
To keep it simple, all these examples have used te – to you/for you.
If someone else is involved, you just have to swap te for me, se, nos, or os.
I’ll explain in a second why we say se instead of le/les*.
- “¿Me prestas tu cargador?
- Sí, te lo presto”
- “¿María te pasó las entradas para el concierto?”
- “Sí, ya me las pasó anoche.”
- “¿Qué pasa con los papeles del auto?”
- “Nos los dan mañana por la tarde.”
If you’re in Spain, you’ll need os lo/la/los/las:
- “Nos encantaron las fotos de la fiesta.”
- “Os las comparto por Whatsapp”
Finally, we have se.
- “¿Quién le vendió el carro a Ana?”
- “Paula se lo vendió muy barato.”
Normally to say “a Ana”, we’d use le. As in, le vendió el carro a Ana.
Why is it “se” here and not “le”?
In a nutshell, it’s just part of the way the language has evolved on its journey from Latin to modern Spanish.
Today, it just is that way (don’t worry, it can be confusing for native speakers too).
- “¿Ya enviaste el email a tus padres?”
- “Sí, se lo envié esta mañana.”
Try it with this example:
- ¿Le das la última galleta a tu hermano?”
- “Bueno sí, _____ _____ doy”
Let’s finish with an example we all wish we could still do:
- ¿Me das tu contraseña de Netflix?”
- “Sí, _____ _____ doy, pero me debes una (you owe me one).
Why are they at the end sometimes?
Earlier I mentioned that sometimes you can see these words in a different order. This happens when we have a longer sentence with another verb that comes first…
A common scenario would be adding voy a…
So “I’m going to give it to you” could be Te lo voy a dar.
Or…
You can move it to the end:
Voy a dártelo
___
*Pronunciation note: the emphasis stays on the verb, which is why there’s an accent mark on the á. Voy a decírtelo, no quieres contármelo, vamos a explicárselo, etc. You can learn all about emphasis and more here.
___
There’s no major difference in meaning if you move these pronouns to the beginning or end.
¿Me lo vas a decir? = Vas a decírmelo?
Se lo vamos a contar = Vamos a contárselo.
The one scenario where you must tack those pronouns onto the end? If you’re giving a command:
Dámelo, entrégamelo, Préstamelo, Dímelo, etc.
That’s all for now!
This kind of thing takes time to get used to.
And if you want to learn more about another important sentence structure, here’s a video I published not too long ago on an important use of that tricky little word “se”.
Saludos,
Connor
P.S. Answers:
- “I gave it to you yesterday” = Te lo di ayer
- The presents? I bought them for you yesterday? = Los regalos? Te los compré ayer.
- ¿Le das la última galleta a tu hermano?”
- “Bueno sí, se la doy”
- ¿Me das tu contraseña de Netflix?”
- “Sí, te la doy, pero me debes una.”
