Pronouns are useful words that fill in for other nouns. You use pronouns all the time in your native speech and writing. And you just read a couple of pronouns in the previous sentence! Spanish direct object pronouns are one type of pronoun, and they fill in for nouns only in certain circumstances.
As you learn Spanish, it’s important to be able to identify and use direct object pronouns. Some of these words can also be used for other grammatical purposes, so understanding is essential to avoid confusion.
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What are direct objects and direct object pronouns in Spanish?
In grammar, a direct object can be any noun that receives the action of a sentence. For example:
- Yo amo la cumbia. = I love cumbia.
Here, the subject (yo) performs the action (amo) on the direct object (la cumbia). In other words, the direct object receives the action of the verb initiated by the subject.
Direct object pronouns
You can also use a pronoun to substitute for the direct object. Using the example above, the direct object pronoun would be:
- Yo la amo. = I love it.
Notice that the direct object pronoun is placed before the verb in Spanish. La substitutes for la cumbia as a shorter and less repetitive way of talking about la cumbia.
Just bear in mind that pronouns need to have an antecedent, which means the listener or reader should already know which noun is being talked about. You can’t say, “I love it” if the other person doesn’t know you’re talking about la cumbia.
How to use Spanish direct object pronouns
Conceptually speaking, Spanish direct object pronouns work the same way they do in English: They refer to a direct object with a pronoun that substitutes for a noun.
The big difference between los pronombres de objeto directo (direct object pronouns) in Spanish and in English is that Spanish has more options because it employs different pronouns in formal and informal addresses. This means that Spanish speakers distinguish between someone they know, like their child, and someone they don’t know, like a stranger on the street.
Spanish also uses different words for “you” depending on whether the subject is singular or plural. And because Spanish has grammatical gender, it distinguishes between a feminine and masculine subject. Refer to masculine nouns with lo for singular direct objects and los for plural ones. To refer to feminine nouns, use la (singular) and las (plural). These four direct object pronouns can have multiple meanings, but their meaning will be clear from the antecedent.
Spanish direct object pronouns list
There are eight Spanish direct object pronouns, and each is used only under specific circumstances.
| Point of view | Spanish | English |
| singular first person | me | me |
| singular second person (informal) |
te | you |
| singular third person (formal) |
lo, la | him / her / it / you |
| plural first person | nos | us |
| plural second person (informal) |
os* | you |
| plural third person (formal) |
los, las | they/you |
*This form is mostly used in Peninsular Spanish.
Examples of singular direct object pronouns
Take a look at an example for each of the direct object pronouns for singular grammatical objects:
- Tú me amas. = You love me.
- Yo te amo. = I love you. (informal)
- María lo ama. = María loves him or it.
- María la ama. = María loves her or it.
- Yo lo amo. = I love you. (formal)
- Yo la amo. = I love you. (formal)
Examples of plural direct object pronouns
Now, look at some examples of plural grammatical objects:
- Tú nos amas. = You love us.
- Yo os amo. = I love you. (informal)
- María los ama. = María loves them.
- María las amo. = María loves them.
- Yo los amo. = I love you. (formal)
- Yo las amo. = I love you. (formal)
How to distinguish direct object pronouns from other pronouns
Spanish direct object pronouns are part of a larger group of Spanish pronouns that help you substitute nouns in speech and writing. However, some of the pronouns used as direct object pronouns in Spanish are also used as reflexive pronouns or indirect object pronouns.
The fastest way to distinguish whether a pronoun is direct, indirect, or reflexive in a sentence is to ask the question “What?” or “Who?”
For the example above, Yo te amo, you can ask the question “Who do I love?” The clear answer is “you,” the direct object! Get more practice identifying direct object pronouns with a Rosetta Stone tutoring session where you’ll get real-time feedback from a native speaker.
Identifying reflexive pronouns
The reflexive pronouns are me, te, se, nos, and se—some of them are the same as the direct object pronouns. If we have a sentence such as Yo me baño, and we ask “Who do you bathe?” we’ll see the answer refers back to the subject: “I bathe (myself).” That is a reflexive action that takes a reflexive pronoun. It’s not a direct object.
Identifying indirect vs. direct object pronouns in Spanish
The indirect object pronouns are me, te, le, nos, os, and les. Again, some of them are exactly the same as the indirect object pronouns. However, sentences with an indirect object pronoun are more complex. They have a subject, a verb, something being exchanged, gifted, or transferred, and a receiver of that thing.
In the example Yo te digo un secreto (I tell you a secret), te might seem like the direct object pronoun, but it’s really the indirect object pronoun because un secreto is the direct object.
Identifying definitive articles
The words lo, los, la, and las can also function as definitive articles that mean “the,” as in los pronombres. But they will always be followed by a noun. Indirect object pronouns are followed by a verb.
Key takeaways about Spanish direct object pronouns
Direct object pronouns are an integral part of speech in Spanish. Here are the most important things to remember about them:
- Direct object pronouns substitute for a noun that has an antecedent.
- The direct object pronouns are me, te, lo, las, nos, os, los, and las.
- Grammatical direct objects directly receive the action from the subject as in: Yo te amo (I love you).
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