Quote:
Originally Posted by jonah
@Angelica, but why is "le" needed at all in this phrase? In other words, why wouldn't it work to say "No he ganado al campeon".
For example, in the past I learned if I wanted to say "I can't believe that team beat us," I could say "No puedo creer que ese equipo nos haya ganado."
But that doesn't mean that the team won us as a prize, right?
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Because by itself "al campeón" is ambiguous: it could be either a direct object or an indirect object. How do we know which one the speaker intends? By whether the speaker includes "le" (it's an indirect object) or doesn't include "le" (it's a direct object). (Depending on context, the speaker might assume that it's obviously an indirect object and not bother to say "le".)
As for
"No puedo creer que ese equipo nos haya ganado.", only third-person pronouns distinguish direct object pronouns (
lo/la/los/las), indirect object pronouns (
le/les) and reflexive object pronouns (
se), while first- and second-person object pronouns (
me, te, nos, os) are identical for all uses (direct object, indirect object, and reflexive object). The listener has to figure it out from context, previous experience, and the person & number of the verb form.