Lo vs le, regional difference?

Question

The answer says: Pasó dos días sumergido en plena naturaleza sin que nadie lo molestara enviándole mensajes o llamándolo.

Can you also say: Pasó dos días sumergido plena naturaleza sin que nadie le molestara enviándole mensajes o llamándole.

Is this Spain vs Latin America grammar? Also, in general, I thought molestar was an inverted verb like gustar and required "le."

Accepted Answer

Hola Jerald
The use of "le" in this context is related to leísmo, a phenomenon where speakers use "le" as a direct object pronoun when it should be "lo" or "la".
In standard Spanish, especially in Spain, the correct form would be: "Pasó dos días sumergido en plena naturaleza sin que nadie lo molestara enviándole mensajes o llamándolo."
Here, "lo" is the appropriate direct object pronoun referring to the person. Using "le" in this context would be considered leísmo, although it is accepted only when referring to 'him' (see the previous link explaining it).
Saludos
Silvia

Answer

One thing that still helps me with inverted verbs is to clearly identify the subject of the clause. “Nadie le molestara” = “no one bothers him”. The subject is “nadie” (no one). The object is “le” (him). So we can see that this is similar to the inverted structure.

If we just said “le molestara” (it bothers him) then this would be the indirect form that we are more familiar with. We could even say “le molestara nadie” (no one bothers him).

In other words we’re not used to seeing a subject at the beginning of an indirect form. But it all kind of works the same way.

Inma and Sylvia, it would be good to see your comments on the placement of the subject in indirect structures.