Spanish help - Why is 'le' in the sentence below?

"Cuando las cosas van mal, enseguida todo el mundo empieza hablar de una cosa, empieza hablar de otra, pero a mí lo que me interesa es que mis amigos que están allí, que son Luis Enrique, Unzué y muchos de los jugadores que conozco desde que son pequeños, PUES LE DEN LA VUELTA A LA SITUACION, apuntó Bakero.

I can’t understand why this sentence needs an indirect object pronoun or what that pronoun would even be. Thanks

It is common in spain use “le” in this type of phrases i think. Anyway you con leave it out and the phrase will have the same meaning.
Es común en España este tipo de repetición yo creo, la frase puede tener el mismo significado sin el “le”, pero así suena también natural.
Espero haberte ayudado
Un saludo.

1 Like

Thank you. I asked my Argentinian friend also and he said they wouldn’t use le there and thinks it is a thing they do from Spain.

I would also use the “le” this way in Mexico.

Any chance you could give me an example of when you would and wouldn’t use it in a sentence like this?

Is the quoted text from a Spain resource? Because in Spain and in a few areas of Latin America, le and les are used in place of lo and los as direct objects (you, him) when referring to or addressing people (le vieron, they saw him; les vistió, she dressed them). I have seen this used in many Spain resources here in LingQ

LE DEN LA VUELTA A LA SITUACION

Den something to someone
The something is the direct object
The someone is the indirect object

In this case the something being given is “la vuelta”
And in this case the something/someone indirect object (receiving the direct object) is “la situacion”.

I thought that whever there is an indirect object named then the indirect object pronoun needs to be present, too.

Anyway “le” is the indirect object pronoun representing “a la situatción”. My Spanish comes from formal classes in the USA and Mexico and living in Mexico for extended periods of time. I am not a native speaker and don’t even consider myself fluent but I approached your question as an English teacher might. :slight_smile:

1 Like

Very methodical =) thanks, Makes sense.

The same indirect object can be used twice in the sentence. It seems redundant in English, but in Spanish is very frequent. It’s specially used in the third person in order to clear up who you are speaking about. It’s also used to emphasize the indirect object. For example:
“Le conté mi problema a mi madre”
“Le di a Juan su regalo”
Keep in mind that some verbs are used in Spanish compulsorily with indirect object. In these cases the indirect object can’t be removed. Frequent verbs with indirect object: “gustar, encantar, interesar, parecer, quedar”. For example:
“A Ana le gusta mucho ir en bicicleta” (it would be incorrect: “A Ana gusta mucho ir en bicicleta”).
“A usted no le interesa la pintura moderna” (it would be incorrect: “A usted no interesa la pintura moderna”).
I hope it helps.

This “le” acts as a kind of accusative, “Situación” would be the object and “Den vuelta” would be the action, then “Le” would act as a connection to the verb, I don’t know how to explain it, but in another example, it would say like saying “ME voy a dormir”, “TE voy a ver”, “ME quiero ir” is the same “LE den vuelta…” some people say “Voy a dormirME” “Voy a verTE” “Quiero irME” but this is a little more colloquial, it’s better the first way; Now, it’s also true that here is not necessary to write “Le”, you would understand by context, but would sound actually a little weird.

I hope that’s helpful for you.