Two questions about personal pronouns

[RufflesHaveRidges]

I have 2 questions about object pronouns:

(1)
According to my Spanish textbook, the following sentence is correct:

"A usted le gusta mucho." [Spanish] =
"To you it pleases much." [English-Spanish]

If I follow the above pattern of word order, then I get the following sentences. Are the following sentences correct, even though it is better to omit the pronoun?

"A ella ello gusta mucho." (To her it pleases much.)
The textbook shows: "A ella gusta mucho."

"Me ello gusta mucho." (Me it pleases much.)
The textbook shows: "Me gusta mucho."

"A él ello gusta mucho." (To him it pleases much.)
The textbook shows: "A él gusta mucho."

"Lo yo siento." (It I regret.)
The textbook shows: "Lo siento."

(2)
One of the above sentences given by the textbook does not follow the pattern of "A <pronoun>". Is the following sentence correct? If not, why not?

"A me gusta mucho." (To me it pleases much.)

[Rusty]

I believe the confusion lies in the English transliteration that has been provided.

Originally Posted by RufflesHaveRidges

(1)
"A usted le gusta mucho." [Spanish] =
"To you it pleases much." [English-Spanish]
("To you it is very pleasing" or 'it is very pleasing to you' is also used as a transliteration of the Spanish structure. Whichever you use, we are forced to use the English subject pronoun 'it'.)

EDIT: I said that the empty subject pronoun 'it' has NO equivalent in Spanish. While this is true, it doesn't apply here. The subject pronoun 'it' in the transliteration is only required in English. In Spanish, it is dropped.

The Spanish structure for expressing what someone likes is quite different from the structure used in English.

In English, the verb 'like' takes a direct object. This is what is liked by someone (where 'someone' is the subject of the sentence). For example, "I like apples" has a subject (the subject pronoun 'I' in this instance), a conjugated form of the verb 'like' (which agrees with the subject), and a direct object (in our example, 'apples' are what is liked).
If someone likes something a lot, we add 'a lot' at the end of the sentence, like so: "I like apples a lot."

The Spanish structure doesn't have a direct object. Instead, what is pleasing to someone becomes the subject of the Spanish sentence. And the 'someone' that is pleased is expressed by using an indirect object pronoun. For example, "Me gustan las manzanas" or "Las manzanas me gustan" has a subject (las manzanas), which can either follow or precede the verb and the indirect object pronoun (me), and a conjugated form of the verb 'gustar' (which agrees in number and person with the Spanish subject).
If something is very pleasing to someone, 'mucho' is added after the verb, like so: "Me gustan mucho las manzanas" or "Las manzanas me gustan mucho."

Now that we've added a subject, other than having to rely on the subject pronoun 'it', you can see how the essential parts of speech are used. Again, the subject pronoun 'it' is only a requirement imposed by the English transliteration of 'it is pleasing' (or 'it pleases'). And we use that transliteration only when no subject is provided. Spanish is a null-subject language; English is not.

EDIT: Since you tried to incorporate the subject pronoun 'it', which is only a requirement in English, it shouldn't figure in your Spanish sentences.

Originally Posted by RufflesHaveRidges

"A ella ello gusta mucho." (To her it pleases much.)
The textbook shows: "A ella gusta mucho."
(Your textbook is incorrect. It is missing the indirect object pronoun 'le': "A ella le gusta mucho." (It is very pleasing to her.))

The indirect object 'A ella' becomes necessary when the indirect object pronoun 'le' is used because this pronoun is ambiguous (it can mean 'to you, to him, or to her' (singular, third-person indirect objects every one)). Technically, 'a ella' is composed of the preposition 'a', followed by a prepositional pronoun. This phrase constitutes the indirect object. BOTH the indirect object AND the indirect object pronoun are required when the third-person indirect object pronoun is 'le' because of the inherent ambiguity. (When the speakers both know whom is pleased, there's no need to include the phrasal indirect object to disambiguate the indirect object pronoun.)

Originally Posted by RufflesHaveRidges

"Me ello gusta mucho." (To me it pleases much.)
The textbook shows: "Me gusta mucho."
(Your textbook is correct. The indirect object pronoun is 'me', which is not ambiguous: "Me gusta mucho." (It is very pleasing to me.))

Originally Posted by RufflesHaveRidges

"A él ello gusta mucho." (To him it pleases much.)
The textbook shows: "A él gusta mucho."
(Once again, your textbook is incorrect. It is missing the indirect object pronoun 'le': "A él le gusta mucho." (It is very pleasing to him.))

The phrasal indirect object 'a él' becomes necessary when the indirect object pronoun 'le' is used, if it is ambiguous.

Originally Posted by RufflesHaveRidges

"Lo yo siento." (It I regret.)
The textbook shows: "Lo siento."
(Your textbook is correct. The unnecessary singular, first-person subject pronoun 'yo' doesn't appear, because the verb ending makes it clear who the subject is: "(Yo) lo siento." ((I) regret it.))

The Spanish verb 'sentir' takes a direct object, unlike the verb 'gustar', so this structure deals with different parts of speech. In the sentence appearing in your textbook, the direct object is replaced by the direct object pronoun 'lo'. The subject can appear at the beginning or at the end of the sentence, but it cannot be inserted between the direct object pronoun and the verb. Again, 'yo' doesn't need to be used at all, because there's no ambiguity. (However, if the subject were a third person, like 'she', the verb would have a third-person ending, and 'she' would need to be added, like so: "Ella lo siente." (She regrets it.) If both speakers know who is sorry, there's no need to disambiguate ('Ella' wouldn't appear in the sentence).)

Originally Posted by RufflesHaveRidges

(2)
"A me gusta mucho." (To me it pleases much.)

You're referring to the sentence in the third quote above, where "Me gusta mucho" was given in your textbook. The reason there was no 'a + pronoun' phrase is because the indirect object pronoun 'me' is not ambiguous. If you wanted to add emphasis, however, 'A mí' could have been added prior to the indirect object pronoun 'me'. BOTH a phrasal indirect object AND an indirect object pronoun would appear in the sentence: "A mí me gusta mucho." (It is very pleasing to me.)) Again, placing 'a mí' prior to 'me' only adds emphasis, since 'me' is not ambiguous.
When disambiguation becomes necessary, BOTH the phrasal indirect object AND the indirect object pronoun are required. Some students of the language are perplexed by this because they don't see any repetition in the English transliteration. But, to create a grammatically correct sentence, this particular Spanish structure needs both.

Let me know if you have questions about anything I wrote.

[RufflesHaveRidges]

Originally Posted by Rusty

I believe the confusion lies in the English transliteration that has been provided.
The empty subject pronoun 'it' has NO equivalent in Spanish.

Yesterday I found a web page that contradicted this assertion:

Saying ‘It’ in Spanish
https://www.thoughtco.com/saying-it-in-spanish-3079358

It says:

"It" is one of the most common English words, but its direct equivalent in Spanish, ello, isn't used much.
That's mostly because Spanish has other ways of saying "it"—or not stating it at all.

It says that "ello" isn't used much, but it gives examples for how it is used if one wants to use it. That is what I was trying to do.

Here is what is says about use of "it" as a direct object:

Saying ‘It’ in Spanish as the Direct Object of a Verb
As the direct object of a verb, the translation of "it" varies with gender.
Use lo when the pronoun it refers to a masculine noun or la when it refers to a feminine noun.

¿Viste el coche? No lo vi. (Did you see the car? I didn't see it. Lo is used because coche is masculine.)
¿Viste la camisa? No la vi. (Did you see the shirt? I didn't see it. La is used because camisa is feminine.)
No me gusta esta hamburguesa, pero voy a comerla. (I don't like this hamburger, but I'm going to eat it.)
Antonio me compró un anillo. ¡Míralo! (Antonio bought me a ring. Look at it!)
¿Tienes la llave? No la tengo. (Do you have the key? I don't have it.)

Now I'm getting very confused. Thanks very much for your response, though. I will need to read your response in more detail.

This is a topic I never understood when I took Spanish in school, and none of my teachers bothered to explain very well how to say "it" in Spanish. I think because they were native Spanish speakers they did not think in terms of "it" so they did not realize that English students naturally would be trying to convert their language (English) to Spanish. That is one problem with hiring native speakers of a target language as teachers of that language: They never had to go through the same thought processes as their students.

[Rusty]

You found correct information.
Note that ello is a subject pronoun, not an object pronoun.
Your source stated that 'ello' is rarely used, or not used at all. I would take that statement as meaning it's not very important, or not used at all.

The direct object pronoun 'lo' can be used to mean 'it', as well as 'you (male)' or 'he'; and 'you (female)' or 'she' is said using the direct object pronoun 'la'. But that wasn't the issue I was making. You were trying to place 'ello' where the subject pronoun 'it' is required in the English transliteration ('it' is pleasing, 'it' pleases). It doesn't belong there at all in Spanish.

Linguists classify Spanish as a pro-drop (pronoun-dropping) language. English is not a pro-drop language. English requires pronouns where Spanish does not. The subject pronoun 'it' used in English has NO equivalent in Spanish when it is empty/null; otherwise, it isn't required.
Look at the phrase "It doesn't matter." In Spanish, this is said "No importa". The subject pronoun 'it' is not used. Also, the auxiliary verb 'does/do' is non-existent. My Spanish-speaking friends couldn't explain why. They couldn't explain why "Nieva" means "It is snowing," either. You see, English requires a subject, even if it doesn't refer to anything.

Have a look at other online sources, like here and here.
In the latter, this sentence appears:

The third person pronouns (él, ella, ellos, ellas) in most contexts can only refer to persons. Therefore, when referring to things (that are not people) an explicit pronoun is usually disallowed.

If you click on the reference appearing after this sentence, which takes you to the official Spanish site where all grammar questions are answered, you'll see the following in 2a:

Cuando las formas de tercera persona él, ella, ellos, ellas funcionan como sujeto, solo pueden referirse a personas; por ello, cuando se hace referencia a cosas, en español no se emplea ningún pronombre personal explícito: He leído tus últimos informes. Enhorabuena: son claros y ofrecen numerosos datos (no *ellos son claros y ofrecen...).

Translating the official rules, it says 'therefore, when [a subject pronoun] refers to things, no explicit personal (subject) pronoun is used in Spanish.'

Let me know if you need further help.

[poli]

Subject pronouns are generally not used in Spanish except for clarification or emphasis, and as you know, it (ello) is the last subject pronoun to be used. It can and may cause more confusion than it would in English, but generally not. As you speak, hear and read the language, it will come to you.