Lesson Introduction
Comments
To comment, please login.
Comments Policy
Allowed comments do not necessarily represent the views of ChinesePod.com. We also reserve the right to reject personal attacks, false/unsubstantiated allegations, spamming of any kind, and comments that include vulgar language or libelous statements.
Out of consideration for our Newbie and Elementary users, English translations should be provided with any Chinese (characters or pinyin) written in Newbie and Elementary lesson discussion posts. New lesson idea? Please let us know on our contact page.

jpvillanueva says
November 4, 2008
Pregunta del día:
¿Te llevas bien con tus cuñados y suegros?
Yo sí, el novio de mi hermanita y su familia son todos muy simpáticos.
stevestr says
November 4, 2008
Equipo Spanishpod
Muchísimas gracias por la lección. Ahora estoy listo para una llamada de Colombia. Y me llevo muy bien con la familia de mi novia.
srcarlos says
November 5, 2008
Jotapito! ¿Cuándo se puede usar "le/les" como complemento directo como hicieron en el diálogo hoy? ¿Es verdad que en España se usa "le" en vez de "lo/la" si refiere a una persona?
anna8 says
November 5, 2008
Es interesante, en el diálogo hablado, los hombres no dicen "adiós" pero en la versión escrita, el uno dice: Ok, hasta luego, y el otro responde: Adiós.
Lo de decir "adiós" mi cuesta mucho cuando estoy hablando español. No importa que le diga yo, mi amig@ siempre mi da una respuesta a cual, por cortesía, me siento obligada a responder . A veces la despedida parece interminable --¡vaya cultura educada! :-)
stevestr says
November 5, 2008
Srcarlos
You are correct, in Spanish (especial in Spain) “le” can be used instead of lo. See Leísmo. Wikipedia says that “le” is used as a substitute for "lo" more often the for “la”. It seems to me that I have heard “le” used as a direct object pronoun for both male and female objects. Anyone else?
In the sentace from this dialog, ¿Le digo que te llame o le llamas tú más tarde?, “Think that only “le” could be used. I think that “que te llame o le llamas tú más tarde” is the direct object and that her (“le”) is the indirect object, but I am not sure and would love some input.
kikuyu says
November 5, 2008
hola esta frase: ¿Le digo que te llame o le llamas tu mas tarde? es traducida en la PDF como:
She’ll be back in two hours. Shall I tell her you called? Or will you call her back later?
¿"Le digo que te llame"? ¿no quiere decir: shall I tell her to call you? en vez de "shall I tell her you called"?
Gracias
stevestr says
November 5, 2008
kikuyu
I agree with you.
kikuyu says
November 5, 2008
Stevestrv, gracias.
estibalitz says
November 5, 2008
kikuyu and stevestrv, you're right with the translation, sorry, we've have already fixed it.
Yes, Leísmo is a very common mistake all over Spain.
stevestr says
November 5, 2008
Esti
Can I ask you, is "le" uses instead of both direct object pronouns "lo" and "la" in Spain or just "lo"?
Thanks
estibalitz says
November 5, 2008
stevestrv, the "le" is used instead of both "la" and "lo".
stevestr says
November 6, 2008
Esti
Thank you
memo0316 says
November 6, 2008
Sometimes when to use le and lo confuses me. I know the basic rules
Direct Object Lo/La = answers the question "What"
Indirect Le = Answers the question to whom or for whom.
But I remember an exercise where two people were talking about the cause of an accident. One person said they crashed because of a problem with the acclerator pedal. The other person then asked
stevestr says
November 6, 2008
memo0316
I get confused by that also. It is like le gusta. It seems to me that the direct object should be used.
jpvillanueva says
November 6, 2008
memo0316 and stevestrv, pasar has many senses, but when it means 'to happen' or 'to occur,' it is intransitive. That is to say, it does not take a direct object. In other words, you can't 'happen' something, the same way you can 'hit' something or 'tickle' something.
When it comes to whether a verb is transitive or intransitive, the verb argument assignment seems to be lexical... which is a fancy way of saying that every language gets to decide which verbs are transitive and which are intransitive. There's not really a logic to it, you just have to learn which pronouns and prepositions go with which verbs.
So 'pasar' is going to take indirect pronouns (le, les) when it means "to happen."
Hope that helps!
mztish says
November 6, 2008
hola todos
Si! me llevo muy bien con la familia de mi esposo...
kikuyu says
November 6, 2008
memo316, I'm glad you asked that question!
J.P., thanks for the explanation:)
srcarlos says
November 7, 2008
Thanks to all for the great comments.
stevestr says
November 7, 2008
Jp
Thank you. You also say "le gusta" is gustar also an intransitive verb?
docmolly says
November 7, 2008
JP... that intransitive/transitive explanation cleared a lot of things up for me! Thanks.
Con respecto a "le" vs "la" en la oración, "....o le/la llames tú más tarde," creo que ambos son correctos. En este caso la persona a quien llamas es el objeto directo, y llamar es un verbo transitivo. Tomé nota que Lili usó "la" en la discussión.
Y sí, me llevo bien con mis cuñados y suegros! Gracias a díos!
jpvillanueva says
November 7, 2008
stevestrv, gustar, when used in the sense of "to give pleasure to," is indeed intransitive. It always has an indirect object pronoun.
I have a "gustar" lesson somewhere in me... I'm not sure if it's going to be a PQS or a LC, but we'll do it one of these days. :)
stevestr says
November 7, 2008
JP thank you
rmiller22 says
November 8, 2008
Me gusta que se puede llamar a sus suegros por sus titulos en espanol. Eso evita la decision a veces incomoda en ingles de llamar a sus suegros "mom and dad." Ya tengo una "mom" y quiero mucho a mi suegra, pero nunca me siento comoda llamarla "mom." Tal vez la llamo "suegra." :)
paulag says
November 9, 2008
Mi llevo bien con mi suegra. No hay una cunada! La familia de mi esposo es pequeno, no?
kikuyu says
November 10, 2008
según el ejemplo en la sección expansion:
volverá dentro de dos horas = I'll be back in two hours.
Entonces para decir: I'll be back within two hours debes decir "volvera en menos de dos horas"?
estibalitz says
November 10, 2008
kikuyu, puedes decirlo como bien has dicho tú en menos de o también puedes decir dentro de 2 horas.
kikuyu says
November 10, 2008
Esti, muchas gracias.
milonga19 says
November 14, 2009
Hello, thank you for the great lesson! I have a question. The brother-in-law asks Y Ustedes? Why doesn't he use Vosotros instead? because looks like they are close. They say tu to each other. Thank you
donperigo says
November 14, 2009
milonga19
Perhaps the brother in law is not from spain. vosotros never made it over to the colonies.