[Spanish] Indirect Objects: Le vs Les

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Jaleel10
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[Spanish] Indirect Objects: Le vs Les

Postby Jaleel10 » Mon Aug 20, 2018 1:56 pm

Simple question. Are there any situations in which you would use Le for plural indirect objects?

I was putting some sentences in DeepL and it gave me these results :?: Why is Le used for plural indirect objects?

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Re: [Spanish] Indirect Objects: Le vs Les

Postby Querneus » Mon Aug 20, 2018 3:46 pm

Yes. This, using le with plural meaning, is very, very common.

Authors of materials for learners don't like to mention this probably because the RAE disapproves of it (the institution files it under usos desaconsejables), but even the RAE admits it is found pretty much everywhere and among all types of people:

    [E]sta discordancia está extendida tanto en España como en América, incluso entre hablantes cultos, por lo que son frecuentes, aunque normativamente desaconsejables, oraciones como *«Colombia LE propuso a los Gobiernos de Estados Unidos y Venezuela una alianza» (Tiempo [Colombia] 18.4.[1997]).
    --RAE, Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, "Pronombres personales átonos"

I would like to add that this is only common when 1) the indirect object is also explicit (le di medicina a mis pacientes, and 2) the indirect object is found after (not before) the verb. If one of these two is violated, most speakers do use les.

    Le di medicina a mis pacientes.
    A mis pacientes les di medicina.
    Les di medicina.
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Re: [Spanish] Indirect Objects: Le vs Les

Postby Jaleel10 » Mon Aug 20, 2018 4:00 pm

Ah. Thanks, Ser. I genuinely would never have known that haha. I even looked through all of my grammar books. I will try to keep this in mind because when I first saw it I was rather confused.
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Re: [Spanish] Indirect Objects: Le vs Les

Postby Chmury » Mon Oct 08, 2018 10:02 pm

Ser wrote:Yes. This, using le with plural meaning, is very, very common.

Authors of materials for learners don't like to mention this probably because the RAE disapproves of it (the institution files it under usos desaconsejables), but even the RAE admits it is found pretty much everywhere and among all types of people:

    [E]sta discordancia está extendida tanto en España como en América, incluso entre hablantes cultos, por lo que son frecuentes, aunque normativamente desaconsejables, oraciones como *«Colombia LE propuso a los Gobiernos de Estados Unidos y Venezuela una alianza» (Tiempo [Colombia] 18.4.[1997]).
    --RAE, Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, "Pronombres personales átonos"

I would like to add that this is only common when 1) the indirect object is also explicit (le di medicina a mis pacientes, and 2) the indirect object is found after (not before) the verb. If one of these two is violated, most speakers do use les.

    Le di medicina a mis pacientes.
    A mis pacientes les di medicina.
    Les di medicina.


Very helpful explanation Ser. I’ve always been a bit confused by this myself, so I’m glad to have that finally cleared up. Appreciate all the excellent explanations you’ve been giving to Jaleel10’s and others’ questions.
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