The Spanish Object Pronouns – Leísmo, Laísmo, And Loísmo

The Spanish language has object pronouns just like its other Romance cousins. However, to us English speakers, they often seem alien because English doesn’t stress on them as much as Spanish does. Many rookie learners doing Spanish get thoroughly confused with the multitude of rules surrounding these pronouns and this article intends to clear the air once and for all. Actually, the only confusing bit happens to be the third person forms that seem deceptively simple – La, lo, and le. In keeping with the essence of simplicity that our articles feature, we will try to steer clear of grammatical nomenclature as far as possible.

The confusion around these pronouns is severely compounded by the fact that different parts of the Spanish speaking world have different ways of using them which are not necessarily consistent with what is acceptable as “correct” by prescription grammar.

The standard way

Before we continue into what the regional variations and colloquial “incorrect” usage are, it’s imperative that we first understand what the “correct” usage is. Well, even before that, let’s first brush up on what exactly these “objects” are.

In most languages, a typical sentence has 3 most basic components. Let’s understand this with an example sentence:

Escribe una carta (He writes a letter)

Referring to this example sentence, the three basic components would be:

1. The action – This is typically what we know as the “verb.” In our example sentence, the action word is escribe (writes).


2. The doer – The idea is that if something is being done, someone’s got to be doing it. This person, thing, or entity that performs the action in question is the “subject,” which in our example is él (he/she). Note that it’s often omitted in Spanish but implied inherently.


3. The recipient – This word or phrase signifies the entity at the receiving end of the said action, grammatically known as the “object.” Objects typically answer the “what,” “whom,” or “to whom” in the sentence. Drawing on this, the object in our sentence is the word that answers the question, “What is being written?” Yes, it’s una carta (a letter).

Now, this recipient of action can be stated as either a direct or an indirect object. The letter in our previous example is essentially a direct object. Direct objects usually answer the question, “what.”

However, if we extend our example to answer the question, “to whom,” we get what’s called an indirect object. Let’s try it out:

Le escribe una carta (He writes a letter to her)

So, what’s being done here? Writing. That’s your verb. Who is doing the writing? He; that’s your subject. What’s he writing? A letter, the direct object. And, to whom is he writing the letter? To her, the indirect object. Easy-peasy? Hope so.


Now, let’s have a look at the words used as the direct and indirect recipients of actions in Spanish – The direct and indirect pronouns:

The pronouns for the first and the second persons are fairly simple and easy to digest:

• me – First person singular for both direct and indirect pronouns; directly corresponds to the “me” in English. For example, me dio el libro (she gave the book to me; indirect), me vio (she saw me; direct).
• te – Second person singular for both direct and indirect pronouns; directly corresponds to “you” or “to you” in English. For example, te dio el libro, te vio.

It’s the third person where the heat is. Here, depending on the gender, you have several words that one must choose from. First the direct objects:

• lo – This one answers a “what” question when the recipient is a singular entity in the third person; e.g., lo vi (I saw him), lo tocó (you touched him).
• la – This one is lo’s girlfriend; e.g., la vi (I saw her), la tocó (you touched her).

This shouldn’t cause any grief as the endings should easily give away their meanings. Every Spanish learner worth their grain knows that “o” endings are guys and “a” endings are girls. Well, mostly if not always. So, lo is for the guys and la is for the girls and there’s no “in-between” in Spanish.

What did Lola eat today?
Photo credit: Raellyn & Melissa licensed CC BY-ND 2.0

Direct objects are even simpler. They don’t differentiate between the guys and the girls and just use a standard le for everyone; e.g., le dio el libro (she gave the book to him/her), le escribo una carta (I write him/her a letter). Do note that, as in the first example here, the indirect object doesn’t always have to take a “to” in English. So, “she gave him a book,” can also be expressed as, “she gave a book to him.” In Spanish, they are all the same.

To remember this easily, consider this sentence as a simple visualization or mnemonic device; these always make life a whole lot easier for lazy Spanish learners:

What did Lola eat today? (Imagine Lola to be a fat chick giving off loud farts after probably gorging on more than her fair share of bean burritos!)

This sentence should hint to the idea that anything that answers a “what,” takes a direct object pronoun, i.e., lo or la. The word, “today” rhymes well with “to-le,” hinting that anything that answers a “to what,” takes a le. What did you write? The letter (direct). To whom did you write? To her (indirect).

Forget Lola, try Leísmo

Leísmo is typical of Spanish from central Spain
Photo credit: Nick Richards licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

What the heck is this leísmo? The Spanish you hear in the streets often deviates from what the grammar authorities would prescribe in the classrooms and this one is a classic example.

Largely confined to certain areas of Spain, this colloquialism involves using le instead of lo. This colloquialism has caught on so well over the years that even RAE-prescribed grammar now considers it as an acceptable practice as long as it’s only referring to male persons and not inanimate entities. Some examples are in order here; let’s consider sentences describing someone seeing different things:

• Vio a un hombre / Lo vio (She saw a man / she saw him) – This is your standard Spanish, where lo replaces un hombre as the direct object. The same sentence when spoken casually in parts of Spain, becomes le vio, where le takes on the role of a direct object instead of lo when the entity in question is a male person, in our example, a man. This usage is now allowed by Spanish grammar.
• Vio un anillo / Lo vio (She saw a ring / she saw it) – Again, the masculine ring is referenced in the direct object form by the word, lo. However, despite being masculine, a ring is not a person and hence, cannot take a le as the man in our previous example did.

So, essentially, leísmo is just a colloquial practice allowing for le to be used as a direct object for male persons which would otherwise take a lo. It’s really that simple and if you are learning Latin American Spanish, don’t even bother with it.

Loísmo and Laísmo

This is, again, a colloquial phenomenon confined to parts of central Spain and is nothing but the stark opposite of leísmo. In such dialects, the pronouns, lo and la which are prescribed as direct object by standard Spanish grammar, get used as indirect objects instead of the more appropriate le. So, when it’s lo replacing the le, it is loísmo and when it’s la, it’s called laísmo. This practice, unlike leísmo is not endorsed by the Spanish grammar and is rarely used outside of casual street talks. Also note that laísmo is more prevalent than loísmo in such dialects.

Again, don’t bother yourself with these issues if the Spanish you’re gunning for is the Latin American flavor, because in those areas, there’s no leísmo, loísmo, or laísmo.

So, if you want to say that you gave your girlfriend a kiss, you’d translate it as:

• Standard Spanish: Le di un beso (I gave a kiss to her)
• Laísmo: La di un beso

See how la replaces le in the indirect object mode in a laísmo dialect?

Anyway, be careful while learning such colloquialism even if you are learning the laísmo/loísmo dialect of central Spain. You should know them only so you can understand when it’s being used. Why? Because it’s quite possible that your Spanish would come off as uneducated when you practice loísmo or laísmo.

That’s all there is when it comes to the third person direct and indirect objects in the Spanish language. As for the plurals, just add an “s” to the lo, la, or le and you’ll do pretty good.