O bien

O bien
 

I have never seen this usage of bien before, but I think it means for the good of or to make up for(as a matter of recompense). Has anyone seen this usage before?

Bien, he visto buenas escrituras a cambio de muchas correctiones.


As my example was wrote, you can use the word Bien in sundry building middle word or sentence, the word Bien is used in alots things and meanings.

O bien is used to mean or or or else. It often has two parts: bien ... o bien ....

Thanks for resolving this. In the context of the sentence written it means
either/or. I always thought the way to say either/ or is( I may be spelling it wrong) i/o.
Here's o bien / o bien in context:El abogado exige a la señora que, o bien
a su cliente se le devuelva su riñon o bien se le compense con lo que debe ...

Yes, exactly Poli, you are right, your own examples are accurate and very clear for me, the word O bien or bien is used when you can say if you need to say Quiero tener mi casa este fin de mes o bien al menos quisiera tener esperansas para el segundo mes.

As well as you can use the word, you only need figure the sentence or the proper structure of the sentence built for you, then if you need more information above please, you feeling free to ask.

I hope you need keep in mind my hints.

Usuall boss speaking
"tienes que elegir, o bien lo haces libremente o bien te lo mando hacer"
A doctor
"Tienes catarro, o bien se te cura en siete dias o bien se te cura en una semana"
Saludos :D

Agreed.

Also I agree with the answer said before.

Another example with 'o bien' working as a conjunct, meaning 'otherwise'

Al llegar a Madrid, lo mas facil es coger el metro desde Barajas, o bien puedes coger un taxi.

When you arrive in Madrid, the easiest way is the underground from Barajas. Otherwise, you may hop in a taxi.

se le
 

El abogado exige a la señora que, o bien
a su cliente se le devuelva su riñon o bien se le compense con lo que debe .

Not understanding se le devuelva and se le compense.

se (to him) le (it the kidney?) devuelva (she returns) If I translated right, why is le not lo?

The word le refers to the kidney, as you surmised. This is a direct object pronoun, and is correctly written. The word se is the indirect object pronoun, and it means to him, as you stated. Usually to him is written lo, which is the correct indirect object pronoun, but Spanish doesn't allow lo le because it sounds bad. So, to avoid cacophony, lo is replaced with se. The same goes for la le, by the way.

The lawyer demands that either the woman returns the kidney or she pays/compensates him for it.

?????????????????
According to my grammar books, the indirect object pronouns for 3rd person are
le, les, or se.

direct object pronouns: lo, la. los, las

Kidney is the direct object?

You're right. I got very confused while writing. Let me restate things.

When both an indirect object pronoun and a direct object pronoun occur in the same phrase, the indirect object pronoun precedes the direct object pronoun.
The indirect object pronoun (le for 3rd person) changes to se if both objects begin with the letter l.
In se le devuelva, the second pronoun (the direct object pronoun) is technically incorrect. It should have been lo, unless you're in certain regions where leismo is accepted. The direct object pronoun refers to the kidney (so, le refers to the kidney). It is perfectly good Spanish to use a direct object pronoun and then turn right around and say the direct object in the sentence.
But, it was about at this point where I got mixed up. I was thinking about the leismo and then messed up everything.
My apologies. :o

You so don't need to apologize, did a forum search and found posts from May 20, 2008 that revealed the mysteries of leismo.