Le and Lo

[Bobbert]

I have trouble trying to figure out whether to use LE or LO when talking on the phone in a formal/semi-formal office setting where I volunteer. Even though I hear other volunteers who are mostly second generation Mexican-Americans using TÚ and TE for EVERYTHING, I try to shy away from doing the same in order to make the office sound more professional and to show respect to the caller.

When I look for the answer using Google Translate or other sources, they also tend to just use TÚ and TE for all of their examples, so that doesn’t help, so I now turn to the grammar experts on this forum.

With that said, I am confused as to whether to use LE or LO for the following and the reason why:

I’ll have her call you.
I usually say: Haré que (ella) lo llame,
but I have no idea why I choose LO; it’s just a guess that sounds right to me.

I’ll have him call you back.
I usually say: Haré que le vuelva a llamar,
but I have no idea why I choose LE; it’s just a guess that sounds right to me.

I’ll have him return your call.
Haré que le devuelva la llamada,
but I have no idea why I choose LE; it’s just a guess that sounds right to me.

I’ll tell her to call you.
Le diré que lo llame; it’s just a guess that sounds right to me.

As you can see, I sometimes use LE and other times LO and I'm just guessing, but I don’t want to guess and use what sounds right to me anymore, so please shed some light on this. It will be greatly appreciated.

Angelica wrote a very detailed thread awhile back covering direct and indirect objects, so along with that and the answer to this, I will be well on my way.

The people calling in are usually from Mexico along with a few Central Americans.

[Rusty]

My not-so-expert answers appear in purple.

Originally Posted by Bobbert

I’ll have her call you.
I usually say: Haré que (ella) lo llame,
but I have no idea why I choose LO; it’s just a guess that sounds right to me.
(Since a direct object is involved, the use of 'lo' is correct if you're speaking with a man living in Mexico or in Latin American countries (with a regional variance I'll mention below). If the direct object is a female, switch the pronoun to 'la'.)

I’ll have him call you back.
I usually say: Haré que le vuelva a llamar,
but I have no idea why I choose LE; it’s just a guess that sounds right to me.
(«Volver a llamar» generally means to call someone again (because you didn't get through the first time you tried or you already spoke with someone but needed to do it again). You should use the same line as above, or use similar phrasing, since I believe you mean that you're going to call someone. The object pronoun you used above would still be correct.)

I’ll have him return your call.
Haré que le devuelva la llamada,
but I have no idea why I choose LE; it’s just a guess that sounds right to me.
(There's no need to insert a pronoun where you did. If you want to use one, change what you're saying to something like «Le diré que devuelva la llamada.» The use of 'le' here is proper, because the person you are telling to do something is the indirect object (the clause is the direct object, providing 'what' you're telling someone to do).)

I’ll tell her to call you.
Le diré que lo llame; it’s just a guess that sounds right to me.
(The clause in this sentence is correct, UNLESS the region being called embraces what is termed «el leísmo de cortesía».)

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

You may always ask here and we'll be happy to help.

Rusty beat me to reply, but another answer won't harm, I guess.

But if you need a quick answer, you can check the Spanish dictionary and see if the verb is transitive (lo/la) or intransitive (le). It isn't always clear, but it helps most of the times.


A transitive verb (the one with a direct object) can't be understood without the thing/person that receives the action:
- Yo llevé. -> The listener needs to know what you took.
=> Yo llevé comida al trabajo.
- Los niños pidieron. -> The listener expects to know what the children asked for.
=> Los niños pidieron dulces. -> Now it's clear for everyone.


An intransitive verb can be expressed without any complement, and it makes sense:
- Yo hablé. -> When I say I speak, I don't need to say what language, the topic or anything else, everyone will have an idea of what the action was.
[Side note: "Hablar" is a transitive verb when you say what language you're speaking: "hablo español" -> lo hablo.]
- Los niños entraron. -> No need to express anything else to know that they were outside and went inside a place.

I’ll have her call you.
I usually say: Haré que (ella) lo llame,
-> "Llamar" may be tricky, because it can be a transitive or an intransitive verb, but here you're saying that a person will be called, so there is a direct object. Another hint to know if this is a transitive verb is that you can put the sentence in passive voice.

I’ll have him call you back.
I usually say: Haré que le vuelva a llamar,
-> This is a case of "leísmo". I won't talk about how it's used in Spain, where it's more frequently found, but in Mexico this particular case is pretty common.
So, a direct object is better for what I said before, but "le" is not considered wrong in this case; it is called "leísmo de cortesía". In general, in Spanish, if you "place" the person "far" from the action, it shows respect for the person. That's why we have the "personal a", for example.
If you use "le atiendo" instead of "la atiendo" or "le llamo" instead of "lo llamo" when you're talking to an "usted", you're showing respect, because you're speaking as if there were something between the action and the person to whom you're talking.
Most Mexican speakers don't really know this, but this is how it works. This is why it sounds right for you; you've acquired it from hearing it used.

I’ll have him return your call.
Haré que le devuelva la llamada,
-> "Devolver" is transitive, when you think about the call, which is the direct object, so the person to whom the call is returned is the indirect object.
"La" is the right pronoun for "la llamada":
Devuelvo la llamada. => La devuelvo.
Le devuelvo la llamada. => Se la devuelvo. (Because both pronouns are together, for phonetic reasons we use "se" instead of "le".)

I’ll tell her to call you.
Le diré que lo llame;
-> Good guess.

And don't worry about explanations. This is a hard thing for us as well, so ask any questions you need.

[Bobbert]

Thank you, Rusty and AngelicaDeAlquezar. Those great explanations really help.

I'm also glad that my guesses were mostly correct. That gives me encouragement.