Los o les?

[DaBu]

Hola a todos. Necesito ayuda!

I was listening to SpanishPod and found a strange line:

A: Hemos venido desde una galaxia lejana buscando
a dos entes extraordinarios para aprender
c´omo vive su especie.

B: Los vamos a secuestrar.

Why is it "los" (Objeto Directo) that used here and not "les" (Objeto Indirecto)? Because, as far as I understood, when we have such construct "some verb a someone", this "someone" should be OI.

Gracias anticipadas!

[wrholt]

Hola a todos. Necesito ayuda!

I was listening to SpanishPod and found a strange line:

A: Hemos venido desde una galaxia lejana buscando
a dos entes extraordinarios para aprender
c´omo vive su especie.

B: Los vamos a secuestrar.

Why is it "los" (Objeto Directo) that used here and not "les" (Objeto Indirecto)? Because, as far as I understood, when we have such construct "some verb a someone", this "someone" should be OI.

Gracias anticipadas!

The verb "buscar" requires an OD, and "a dos entes extraordinarios" is the only possibility. When the OD of "buscar" is both animate and definite, one MUST introduce it with the preposition "a" (the usage that is often called "personal a"). In sentence A, the speaker knows which two extraordinary beings he/she is looking for; saying "buscando dos entes extraordinarios", the speaker would be saying that he/she is for any random two extraordinary beings, but does not know who they are in particular; in this case the OD is animate but indefinite.

In sentence B, the verb "secuestrar" also requires an OD, and in this context that OD is still the extraordinary beings.

[DaBu]

Muchas gracias!
Are there some verbs in Spanish that always require OD, or it's just in this particular situation?
If it is not inconvenient to you, could you please give me a link or suggest grammar book where I can find more advance info about OD and ID?

[wrholt]

Muchas gracias!
Are there some verbs in Spanish that always require OD, or it's just in this particular situation?


It's not just this particular situation; many verbs require some type of OD; depending on the particular verb and the particular meaning of the verb, the OD may be an OD pronoun, a noun, a prepositional phrase, or a relative clause.


If it is not inconvenient to you, could you please give me a link or suggest grammar book where I can find more advance info about OD and ID?

There are many good grammars about Spanish that one can find. One of my favorites is "A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish", by John Butt and Carmen Benjamin; the 5th edition was published a few years ago. Other forum members may have other suggestions.