Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to identify direct objects in a Spanish sentence and replace them with the correct pronoun in the correct position.

Lesson Explanation

A direct object receives the action of the verb directly — in “I read the book,” “the book” is the direct object. Spanish direct object pronouns:

me — me         nos — us
te — you (informal)  os — you all (Spain)
lo — him/it (masc.)  los — them (masc.)
la — her/it (fem.)   las — them (fem.)

A genuinely important word-order difference from English: direct object pronouns are placed before a conjugated verb, not after it:

Leo el libro. — I read the book.
Lo leo. — I read it. (NOT "Leo lo")

With an infinitive, the pronoun can either attach to the end of the infinitive, or move before the conjugated verb — both are correct:

Voy a leer el libro. → Voy a leerlo. OR Lo voy a leer.

Note that lo and la must match the gender of the noun they replace, following the same masculine/feminine pattern established in Part 1, Lesson 4 — a habit that has no equivalent in English “it.”

Practice Questions