Answers:
1. The Direct Object, is the part of the sentence that directly receives the action of the verb.
For example in the sentence:
Yo veo al extranjero
I see the foreigner
Who directly receives the action of the verb veo (I see) is al extranjero (the foreigner). Therefore this is the direct object of the sentence.
2. On the other hand, the Indirect object of a sentence is the person, animal or thing that indirectly receives the action of the verb.
To identify it in a sentence, we must ask to the verb ¿a quién? (to whom?) Or ¿para quién? (for whom?)
For example,in the case of the sentence:
Juan le regala flores (a ella)
Juan gives her flowers
If we ask ourselves the following question:
¿a quién le regala flores Juan?
To whom does Juan give flowers?
The answer is:
A ella
(To her)
Being her who indirectly receives the action (although her does not explicitly appear in the sentence, this is acceptable in Spanish grammar), therefore the indirect object of the sentence.
Now, the Indirect Object Pronouns replace a word or phrase, which in the sentence fulfills the function of indirect object. As shown below:
1st person singular Yo: me
2nd person singular (informal) Tú: te
2nd person singular (formal) Usted: le
3rd person singular El/Ella/eso/esa: le
1st person plural Nosotros: nos
2nd person plural Ustedes (In latinAmerica): les
2nd person plural Vosotros (In Spain): os
3rd person plural Ellos/Ellas: les
Going back to the sentence Juan le regala flores, her (which is the indirect object) is related to the 3rd person in singular ella (she), hence the correct indirect object pronoun to replace it according to the list bove is:
In summary, the answers are:
1. Which sentence uses a direct object?
Yo veo al extranjero
2. Which sentence uses an indirect-object pronoun?
Juan le regala flores
