Spanish Personal Pronouns & Direct Object

Advanced Spanish Lessons

Learn Spanish Online

Home » Learn Spanish » Spanish Course for Advanced » spanish personal pronouns direct object

spanish personal pronouns direct object

Table of Contents
1. Using Direct Object Pronouns	2. Word order with direct object pronouns

Using Direct Object Pronouns

What is a direct object pronoun?

A direct object pronoun is a word such as me, him, us and them, which is used instead of the noun to stand in for the person of thing most directly affected by the action expressed by the verb.

Direct object pronouns stand in for nouns when it is clear who or what is being talked about, and save having to repeat the noun.

I've lost my glasses. Have you seen them?

Have you met Jo? – “Yes, I Really like her!”

Here are the Spanish direct object pronouns:

Singular	Meaning	Plural	Meaning
me	me	nos	us
te	you (relating to tu)	os	you (relating to vosotros/vosotras)
lo	him it (masculine) you (relating to usted - masculine)	los	them (masculine) you (relating to ustedes - masculine)
la	her it (feminine) you (relating to usted - feminine)	las	them (feminine) you (relating to ustedes - (feminine)

Note that you cannot use the Spanish direct object pronouns on their own without a verb or after a preposition such as a or de.

Te quiero =I Love You
No lis toques. =Don't touch them.

Word order with direct object pronouns

Note that you will often need to add a written accent to preserve the spoken stress when adding pronouns to the end of verbs.

In orders and instructions telling someone NOT TO DO something. The pronoun does NOT join onto the end of the verb.

Don't touch them.

No los toques.

If the pronoun is the object of an infinitive (the to form of the verb) or a gerund (the-ing form of the verb), you always add the pronoun to the end of the verb to form one word, unless the infinitive or gerund follows another verb. Again, you may have to add written accent to preserve the stress.