Reviewing Leísmo in Spanish

Leísmo is a very interesting linguistic topic related to direct object pronouns. It is important for students of Spanish to understand it, because it can be confusing, especially if they travel to Spain.

Reviewing Direct Object Pronouns

Rule 1. Before explaining leísmo, it is important to review the topic of direct object pronouns.

When we are talking about the complement or direct object of a sentence, we are referring to what receives the action. It can usually be answered with the question ¿qué?

If we ask in this case, "what are you reading?", the answer would be 'un libro.'

Thus, direct object pronouns replace the direct object.

Indirect object pronouns are: me, te, lo, la, nos, os, los, and las. But today, we will be focusing more on lo, los, la, and las.

What Is Leísmo?

Rule 2. Leísmo is a linguistic phenomenon where the direct object pronouns lo(s) and la(s) are replaced by le(s).

This occurs mostly in some parts of Spain like Valladolid, Segovia, and Salamanca. They tend to be used specifically when the direct object is a person, although some speakers may use it with objects as well. Let's see an example.

Without leísmo

With Leísmo

As you can see in the examples, with leísmo, le is substituted for lo as the direct object pronoun.

Courtesy Leísmo

Rule 3. Leísmo inside and outside Spain can be heard in a phenomenon called leísmo de cortesía. This is used in the same way as explained above with the particularity that it is mainly used with people who are addressed as usted.

This practice is frowned upon by many linguists and defended by others. Some linguists say that the correct usage of CD is with lo(s) or la(s), while other linguists argue that leísmo is not incorrect since many speakers use it and communication is clear.