The two rules, in one chart
Indirect before direct, and le becomes se. The indirect pronoun says who gets something — me, te, le, nos, os, les — and the direct one says what — lo, la, los, las. When both are there, the person comes first: me lo das, you give it to me; te la traigo, I bring it to you.
Both pronouns travel as a block: before a conjugated verb, or attached to the end of an infinitive, a gerund or a command. They are never split, one on each side of the verb.
| Pair | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
| me lo | Me lo dio. | He gave it to me. |
| te la | Te la traigo. | I'll bring it to you. |
| nos los | Nos los enseñaron. | They showed them to us. |
| os las | Os las presto. | I'll lend them to you all (Spain). |
| se lo (le + lo) | Se lo di. | I gave it to him, her or you. |
| se la (les + la) | Se la mandé. | I sent it to them. |
Why does le turn into se?
Because le and les never stand in front of lo, la, los or las. When they would, they take the form se: les compré caramelos becomes se los compré, and le puse los zapatos becomes se los puse — the academies' own examples. So it is se lo di, not le lo di; se las mandé, not les las mandé.
This se is not the reflexive se of lavarse; it is le in another form, so it carries no gender and no number. Se lo di can mean I gave it to him, to her, to you (usted) or to them. When the context does not make it clear, add the person at the end: se lo di a ella, se lo dije a ustedes.
Which pronoun goes first?
The person before the thing — and whenever se is in the group, se goes first. The academies' full order is se, then the second person (te, os), then the first (me, nos), then the third (lo, la, los, las): te lo, me la, se lo, se me.
Me se and te se are the slips to watch: they are common in casual speech, and the academies call them popular use, not the standard. It is se me olvidó, se te cayó — the se of the verb olvidarse or caerse, then the person it happened to.
| Say | Not |
|---|---|
| Se me olvidó. | Me se olvidó. |
| Se te cayó el vaso. | Te se cayó el vaso. |
| Te lo dije. | Lo te dije. |
| Me la pasas. | La me pasas. |
Where do the two pronouns go?
The rule of thumb: before a conjugated verb, after an infinitive, a gerund or a yes-command. With two verbs together you can choose — te lo voy a dar and voy a dártelo say the same thing, and formal writing leans to the second. Hay que is the exception that does not allow the choice: hay que pedírselo, never se lo hay que pedir.
Attached pronouns are written as one word with the verb: dímelo, not dime lo. A negative command takes them in front again: dámelo, but no me lo des.
| The verb · where the pair goes | Example |
|---|---|
| a conjugated verb: before it, as separate words | Te lo dije. · No te lo dije. |
| an affirmative command: attached to the end, in one word | Dámelo. · Díselo. |
| a negative command: before it | No me lo des. |
| an infinitive or a gerund: attached to the end | para dártelo · estoy explicándotelo |
| two verbs together (voy a, quiero, puedo): before the first, or attached to the last | Te lo voy a dar. = Voy a dártelo. |
| a compound tense: before haber | Ya se lo he dicho. |
| hay que + infinitive: attached to the infinitive only | Hay que pedírselo. |
Why does dámelo have an accent?
Because two pronouns add two syllables, and the stress stays where the verb had it. Da + me + lo = dámelo, stressed three syllables from the end, and every such word carries a written accent: díselo, dártelo, cuéntamelo, explicándotelo.
With one pronoun the accent is often not needed — dime, dame, dale end in a vowel and are stressed on the second-to-last syllable — and it appears the moment the second pronoun arrives: dímelo, dámelo. The academies' rule is simply the general accent rule applied to the whole word (déselo, cuéntame).
Se los dije: what you will hear in Latin America
In much of the Americas, speakers often move the plural of se onto lo when the person is plural: se los dije for se lo dije (a ustedes) — I told you all. The academies record it as frequent in popular and colloquial speech across the Americas and the Canary Islands, and as spread among educated speakers in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean mainland and the River Plate, where it lives alongside se lo dije.
For a learner: write se lo dije a ustedes, and recognize se los dije when you hear it. Moving the gender too — se las envié for el mensaje… a sus amigas — stays outside educated use.
Why do English speakers mix them up?
Because English puts the thing first and the person after a preposition — give it to me — so the first attempts come out lo me or me da lo. Then le lo, because him is le, and le lo looks like a perfectly logical pair. The quiz on this page is built from those slips, plus the two placements and the accent.
Our mistake corpus counts object pronouns as one point: Nivelo learners miss 43% of their object-pronoun choices in real conversation and writing (36 learners, 468 attempts, recounted 24 September 2026). It does not split out the pairs yet; when it does, that number will sit here.
What comes after se lo?
Lo, la or le is the step before — which pronoun on its own — and gustar and its family is where le and les do most of their work. The personal a is the little word that comes back in se lo di a ella. Spanish commands are where the pair joins the end of the verb — dímelo, dáselo — and moves in front after no: no me lo digas. Reflexive verbs follow the same rules with one pronoun: me levanto, levántate, voy a levantarme. The free Spanish level test places you on the A1–C2 scale in five minutes; object pronouns settle on the A2-to-B1 line, and A2 vs B1 Spanish says what else changes there.