Idnirect Object Pronouns

You'll notice that most of the indirect objects are used to take the place of two different prepositions: to and for.

I bought a car for you.

I bought you a car.

I painted a picture for you.

I painted you a picture.

Other prepositions can't be combined into pronouns:

I'll go with you. - I'll go you. X

He took a book from me. - He took me a book. X

They're working above my room. - They're working it. X

Our indirect object pronouns are also primarily combinations of prepositions and prepositional pronouns

Me - a/para + mí

Te - a/para + ti

Le - a/para + él/ella/usted/(noun)

Nos - a/para + nosotro/as

Les - a/para + ellos/ellas/ustedes/(noun)

Mi padre dio una chaqueta a mí.

Los estudiantes hicieron una presentación para ti.

¿Ernesto? Unos chicos llevaron todo el cartón a él.

Mi padre me dio una chaqueta.

Los estudiantes te hicieron una presentación.

¿Ernesto? Unos chicos le llevaron todo el cartón.

Note: Object pronouns go before conjugated verbs, or at the ends of infinitives.

Unlike in English, in Spanish it is common to have the prepositional phrase AND the indirect object pronoun instead of replacing it.

A ti te doy la ropa usada.

We can use this to specify or emphasize who we are talking about in a sentence.

A mi amigo Efrám le di un almuerzo.

Les hicimos una donación de $100 a los niños.

It sounds weird in English because all of our pronoun forms are the same. You would never say, "To you I gave you a present yesterday," because the "you" has the same form and sounds redundant. But in Spanish...

"A ti te di un regalo ayer," sounds fine.

When a sentence has both an indirect object pronoun and a direct object pronoun, they both go before the conjugated verb, with the indirect object pronoun going first.

¿Tienes la computadora para mí?

Sí, te la tengo.

If both of the pronouns start with "L" (any combination of le, les, lo, la, los or las) the indirect object pronoun becomes "se."

¿Cuándo le diste los juguetes a Jordan?

Se los di ayer. (I gave him them yesterday.)