What is the direct object?

Anthony F.B2Kwiziq community member

What is the direct object?

I saw this in an article on the BBC about direct and indirect object pronouns.

Escuchamos al cantante.

Le escuchamos.

Is that corrrct? I don’t get why we'd use the indirect object pronoun here. What is the direct object in this case?

Asked 2 weeks ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hola Anthony 

Both "Lo escuchamos" and "Le escuchamos" are considered correct. The verb "escuchar" (as in escuchar algo or escuchar a alguien) is a transitive verb with a direct object, or direct object pronoun, which should be lo, la, los, las; however, there is something called leísmo in Spanish that is basically using le/les as direct object pronouns instead of indirect object pronouns. Some cases are incorrect but in this case, referring to a singular male direct object, the RAE says that it is accepted. Here is some information about leísmo. Theres also something called loísmo and laísmo; you'll find links at the end of that short article.

If you want a challenge, here's the whole article by RAE (in Spanish) about leísmo

Un saludo cordial.

Inma

Anthony F.B2Kwiziq community member

Qué interesante! ¡Gracias por tu respuesta Inma!

What is the direct object?

I saw this in an article on the BBC about direct and indirect object pronouns.

Escuchamos al cantante.

Le escuchamos.

Is that corrrct? I don’t get why we'd use the indirect object pronoun here. What is the direct object in this case?

Sign in to submit your answer

Don't have an account yet? Join today

Ask a question

Find your Spanish level for FREE

Test your Spanish to the CEFR standard

Find your Spanish level
Let me take a look at that...