Spanish Language and Culture 10-3Y

6.3 Direct Object Pronouns

You have already been introduced briefly to  indirect object pronouns. Now we will learn about the direct object pronouns. This is just an introduction; you learn how to use them in detail in Spanish 20 - but they are commonly used to avoid repetition, so you should be aware of what they mean at this level.  Do you know what a direct object is in English? Look at the example sentence: 

• Juan and Carlos are bringing the salad.
  

• What is the direct object? What do Juan and Carlos bring? The answer is salad. This is the direct object.  We would replace it with the word it to avoid repetition - EG: What about the salad? Juan and Carlos are bringing the salad becomes Juan and Carlos are bringing it. 

• Here is the example in Spanish:   Juan y Carlos traen la ensalada.  
• The word ensalada is feminine and singular, so the correct direct object pronoun we would use to replace la ensalada is la.  EG: ¿Qué pasa con la ensalada? Juan y Carlos traen la ensalada becomes Juan y Carlos la traen.