Clitics

[tetsuo]

How these are build?

It seems verb + affix
like dámelo.

Is it only used for imperatives?

And if affixed come seperated which sentence structure is a must?

Are these right?
¿Cuándo me visita?
No me visita.

Are there any more confusing sentence structure regarding clitics to know? It causes much trouble in my head. ;-) But right now it seems to me I have them understand a bit better than before.

[Julvenzor]

The rule is a bit "simple". These pronouns are used for imperatives (affirmatives) and verbs in infinitive:

Dámelo / No me lo des
Dáselo / No se lo des
Démelo / No me lo dé
Déselo / No se lo dé
Dánoslo / No nos lo des
Dénoslo / No nos lo dé
Dáoslo / No os lo deis
Dadselo / No se lo deis

- Tengo que ayudarla (a ella) = La tengo que ayudar (a ella)
- Voy a leerle (a él/ella) un libro = Le voy a leer un libro (a él/ella)
- Puedo conseguirlo = Lo puedo conseguir


A pleasure.

[Rusty]

The object pronouns (direct and indirect) are always suffixed to the affirmative, or positive, imperative. They are also suffixed to the infinitive and participles.
The pronouns (clitics) precede all other verb forms, including the negative imperative.

¿Cuándo me visita?
This is correct. The object pronoun precedes the verb conjugated into the present indicative tense.

No me visite.
This is a negated imperative and the verb ending has been corrected.

Visíteme.
This is the affirmative imperative, so the clitic is suffixed.

Note that the stressed syllable in the conjugated verb is retained when the clitic is suffixed by adding an orthographic accent mark.

If a verb takes both a direct and an indirect object, both pronouns appear prior to the verb, for all forms but the affirmative imperative, participles and the infinitive.

(There are times when a suffixed clitic appears where it is not normally allowed, but don't worry about this for now.)

[tetsuo]

As I said this gives me a headache especially when they are not "build together" but instead it's "No me lo des". I thought lo and me cannot be used together until the new lesson on the duolingo app proved me wrong. Now they are appearing like hell. Se / me / Te (...) combined with lo / le (...) - insane. I thought I understood the basics of Spanish especially sentence structure and now it's all messed up in my head.

The l-words (lo/le/ etc) are always after me / se (etc.) right? Like in the sentences mention by Julvenzor, right?

@rusty
Why is ending of the negated form different from the one used in the question? Are those both different times?

[Rusty]

The clitics beginning with 'l' should not be grouped. Two - 'lo' and 'la' - are direct object pronouns. The other - 'le' - is an indirect object pronoun.
When both indirect and direct object pronouns are used, the indirect precedes the direct object pronoun.
As you can see in the examples above, 'lo' comes after the other pronoun. The other pronoun is an indirect object pronoun.
Caution: The Spanish language doesn't allow two third-person objects in a row - 'lelo' (the third-person forms of the indirect object and direct object pronouns). When you have two third-person objects back-to-back, the indirect object (the first pronoun) is changed to 'se'.

Edit: The question is asked in the indicative mood. The imperative mood was used in the answer. The imperative mood has a different ending than the indicative mood.

[wrholt]

When using more than 1 object pronoun as a group attached to a particular verb, the order of the pronouns is fixed. According to the RAE:

1. If 'se' is present, it always comes first.
2. If a 2nd-person pronoun ('te' or 'os') is present, it always follows 'se' and precedes everything else.
3. If a 1st-person pronoun is present ('me' or 'nos'), it always follows 'se' and 2nd-person pronouns.
4. If a 3rd-person pronoun other than 'se' is present ('lo', 'la', 'le', 'los', 'las', 'les'), it always is the last pronoun in the list. Futhermore, it is not possible to use 2 of these pronouns; if you need 2 of these, 'se' is used as the indirect object instead of 'le' or 'les'.

[Rusty]

Thanks wrholt.
The rules can be shortened to:
'se' must always be in front,
second persons are in front of first persons and
third persons (except 'se') are always last

[tetsuo]

Gracias!
Can you provide exsample sentences to understand it better or provide a link where I can see examples?

[Rusty]

http://www.espanol-ingles.com.mx/spanish-grammar/clitics.shtml
http://www.almannsspanishteacher.com/2013/01/10/the-clitic-pronouns
http://www.sepln.org/revistaSEPLN/revista/34/06.pdf

[pjt33]

Note that this is one aspect of Spanish grammar which has changed in the past century, so if you're reading old texts you might find clitics attached to verbs in the present tense.

[Rusty]

Yes, this is what I was indicating in the parenthetical note in post #3.
If you read the 1909 Reina-Valera version of the Bible, you'll encounter all kinds of enclitics that have fallen out of use.

[tetsuo]

¡Gracias por la explicación!