The Direct Object Pronouns Lo and La

Once we start delving into the topic of direct object pronouns, it's important to review the rules of noun gender that is ever so prevalent in the Spanish language. Remember, unlike English, every noun in Spanish carries a masculine or a feminine identity. In Spanish 1, you probably can just avoid studying nouns along with their definite articles, but once you make the decision that "yes, Spanish is for me", then you must take into account the gender of all of those nouns in those vocabulary lists that your teacher loves to give out for homework.

Here's why: when we want to refer to a noun in a neutral form, i.e. refer to the noun as "it", we take very specialized object pronouns and place them either in front of the conjugated verb, or attached to the end of the infinitive. The direct object pronouns lo and la are the first ones we are going to master since they occur in the third person form and we can most easily associate them with the English "it". However, this is only a small portion of the topic of direct object pronouns, so keep an eye out in the future for more on this subject.

Observe:

Lo estudio. I study it.
In the above example, lo can refer to anything that is singular and masculine; for instance, we could have been referring to el portugués.


Manuel quiere comerla. Manuel wants to eat it.
In the above example, la refers to anything that is singular and feminine; for instance, we might have been referring to la enchilada.


Did you know that the object pronouns lo and la can also refer to people? Let's say you have a friend named Manuel who went to México on a nice little sabbatical from his job. He's been down there surfing for about a week. I want to ask you if you picked him up yet at the airport. The question posed, along with its reciprocation:

¿Conseguiste a Manuel al aeropuerto? Did you get Manuel at the airport?
Sí, lo recojí a las dos. Yes, I picked him up at 2.

Of course, you would change the lo to la if we were referring to a female.

Now, suppose you want to pluralize the direct object pronouns? Very simple. Just add an s to the lo or la, and you got it made.

¿Dónde están mis enchiladas? Where are my enchiladas?
¡Yo las comí! I ate them!!

Using direct object pronouns is a great way to maximize your efficiency in Spanish, and can immediately make you start sounding native.

Sigue estudiando,

Joel