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Trey t 47a7871c38 Add 13 new grammar notes with 1010 exercises from video extraction

Scraped a 4h Spanish fundamentals YouTube video (transcript + OCR on
14810 frames), extracted structured content across 52 chapters, and
generated fill-in-the-blank quizzes for every grammar topic.

- 13 new GrammarNote entries (articles, possessives, demonstratives,
  greetings, poder, al/del, prepositional pronouns, irregular yo,
  stem-changing, stressed possessives, present/future perfect, present
  indicative conjugation)
- 1010 generated exercises across all 36 grammar notes (new + existing)
- Fix tense guide parser to handle unnumbered *Usages* blocks
- Rewrite 6 broken tense guide bodies (imperative, subj pluperfect,
  subj future) with numbered usage format
- Bump courseDataVersion 5→6 with TenseGuide refresh on upgrade
- Add docs/spanish-fundamentals/ with raw transcripts, polished notes,
  structured JSON, and exercise data

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-04-16 08:40:05 -05:00

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17. Direct Object Pronouns

Source: video link

A direct object pronoun (DOP) replaces the direct object noun in a sentence — the thing or person directly receiving the action of the verb. In Spanish, DOPs come before the conjugated verb, or attach to the end of an infinitive or gerund.

Key Rules

A DOP replaces the direct object so you don't have to repeat the noun.
DOPs go before a conjugated verb: Yo lo compro (I buy it).
They can attach to the end of an infinitive: Voy a comprarlo.
They can attach to the end of a gerund (present participle), in which case you must add a written accent to keep the original stress: Estoy comprándolo.
You cannot attach a DOP to a fully conjugated verb. Yo compro lo is wrong.
The "personal a" precedes a human direct object: Ella mira a Juan.
lo, la, los, las agree in gender and number with the noun they replace.

Conjugation / Pattern Tables

Direct Object Pronouns

English	Singular	English	Plural
me	me	us	nos
you (informal)	te	y'all (Spain)	os
him / it (m) / you (Ud.)	lo	them (m) / you (Uds.)	los
her / it (f) / you (Ud. f)	la	them (f)	las

Placement options

Construction	Form 1 (before verb)	Form 2 (attached to infinitive/gerund)
Simple verb	Yo lo compro.	—
Modal + infinitive	Yo lo puedo ver.	Yo puedo verlo.
ir a + infinitive	Yo lo voy a leer.	Yo voy a leerlo.
Present progressive	Tú me estás mirando.	Tú estás mirándome.

Examples

Spanish	English
Yo compro un coche. → Yo lo compro.	I buy a car. → I buy it.
Quiero los libros. → Los quiero.	I want the books. → I want them.
Ellos tienen una casa. → Ellos la tienen.	They have a house. → They have it.
Yo te amo.	I love you.
Tú nos miras.	You watch us.
Ella mira a Juan. → Ella lo mira.	She watches Juan. → She watches him.
Yo te puedo ver. / Yo puedo verte.	I can see you.
Ellos los quieren comprar. / Ellos quieren comprarlos.	They want to buy them.
Yo lo voy a leer. / Yo voy a leerlo.	I'm going to read it.
Tú me estás mirando. / Tú estás mirándome.	You are watching me.
Ellos lo están leyendo. / Ellos están leyéndolo.	They are reading it.

Notes & Gotchas

A DOP cannot attach to a single conjugated verb — only to infinitives, gerunds, and affirmative commands.
When you attach a pronoun to a gerund, add an accent over the original stressed vowel: mirándome, leyéndolo.
Use the personal a before a person who is the direct object: Veo a María — but the DOP itself is still la (La veo).
lo can also act as a neuter "it" referring to an idea: Lo sé (I know it).
In some Spain dialects, le is used instead of lo for masculine people (called leísmo).

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