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Work Unit Twenty-Two: ¿Qué vida tan cruel! |
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Prepositional Pronouns
You've already learned some pronouns, such as yo for "I" and tú
for the familiar singular "you." You may have learned that those pronouns
are used as subjects of sentences. In this lesson, we will learn about the
pronouns that are used as the objects of prepositions.
Assignment
Complete the lesson on pages 235-41 of the textbook. Be sure also to listen to the
audio supplement, which this week provides some brief instruction on
materialnot covered in the textbook or in this online lesson.
Be sure to complete the exercises. Although copyright rules and fairness
to other students using this book prevent me from publishing all the answers,
you can check the answer page to see an answer
to the first question in each section to help get you started. If you have
any questions, feel free to ask them on the bulletin
board.
Background
In many ways, the use of prepositional object pronouns is much in Spanish
as it is in English, but with one key exceptions that will be discussed here.
The main similarity is that in Spanish as in English the prepositional pronoun
follows the preposition. Doy el reloj a tí. I am giving
the clock to you. With rare exceptions (and those are usually for
effect),the pronoun comes immediately after the preposition.
The main difference is that in English, the prepositional object pronoun
always has a different form than the subject pronoun. In Spanish, the form
is differentonly for first-person and familiar second-person singular form.
Doy elreloj a tí. I am giving the clock to you. Tú
das el reloja mí. You are giving the clock to me. But the subject
and prepositionalobject forms are the same for the other persons. Él
da el reloj a ella. He gives the clock to her. Ella da el reloj a
él. She gives the clock to me. Nosotros damos el reloj
a ellos. We aregiving the clock to them. Ellos dan el reloj a nosotros.
They are givingthe clock to us.
You can review the following chart to see examples. It is similar to the
one in the text.
me
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mí
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She bought the book for me.
Compró el libro para mí.
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you (familiar)
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tí
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He gave the book to you.
Dio el libro a tí.
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you (formal), him, her, it
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él, ella
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He bought the car for her.
Compró el coche para ella. |
us
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nosotros, nosotras
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She bought the house for us women.
Compró la casa para nosotras.
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you (informal)
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vosotros, vosotras
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I have two presents for you.
Tengo dos regalos para vosotros.
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them
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ellos
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The school is near them.
La escuela está cerca de ellos.
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Important note: The above chart shows the pronouns only as the object
of apreposition. Objects of verbs can use the same words in English but different
words in Spanish. For example, "me" can be the object of a verb in English,
as in the sentence "he loves me." But in the Spanish equivalent sentence,
"me" isn't translated as mí, but as me: me ama
.
Coming up
In the next lesson we'll take a look at the culture
of Spain.
Next page > Sample Answers > Page 1, 2
