Lesmo

Lesmo ("using le") is a phenomenon in the Spanish language that involves using the indirect object pronoun le in place of the (standard) masculine direct object pronoun lo, especially when the direct object is animate. Lesmo with animate objects is both common and considered correct in the dialects spoken in Spain, but ungrammatical in most others. Lesmo is always considered ungrammatical when the direct object it refers to is not an animate object. Examples:
Veo al chico ("I see the boy") → Lo veo (standard Spanish, with lo)
Veo al chico ("I see the boy") → Le veo (lesmo, standard in Spain)
Veo el rbol ("I see the tree") → Le veo (ungrammatical — the tree is not a person)
The use of le in dialects where lesmo is standard correlates with the use of the preposition a for animate direct objects. That is, if a dialect features lesmo, le replaces masculine direct objects that would have been preceded by a if expressed in full. Le is properly speaking the epicene indirect object pronoun, used for both masculine and feminine referents, whether animate or inanimate. In certain idiolects it is replaced by lo or la, but this usage is ungrammatical and considered uneducated.
Le voy a dar un regalo ("I'm giving him/her a present")
La voy a dar un regalo (supposedly "I'm giving her a present"; ungrammatical)
Le puse ms memoria a la PC ("I got the PC more memory"; correct, even if the PC is inanimate)

 

<< PreviousWord BrowserNext >>
antonia johnson
eitaro itoyama
edward johnson, iii
peter nicholas
sneutrino
joseph safra
smuon
u.s. senate election, 1932
kroq top 106.7 countdown of 2000
stau
shari arison
charlene de carvalho heineken
uss augusta (1853)
karl heinz kipp
spiro latsis
albert j. beveridge
hms implacable
robert bosch, jr.
saint luc
william cook
george kaiser
sunil mittal
paropamisadae
preston robert tisch
kloss gibbon
marin calfa
charles butt
kokubu technology center
saint marcel
rupert johnson, jr.
karel urbnek
gordon getty
stein erik hagen
belsen was a gas
john c. malone
kroq top 106.7 countdown of 2001
peter sperling
istiqlal mosque
kumamoto technology center
ceceo
david murdock
eagle lake
eddyville
eldon