2

La secretaria le traduce la carta al jefe.

vs

La secretaria le traduce la carta.

In 2nd sentence it's impossible to know who she is translating this for right? "le" means him\her\its in this case. You can't know it without the last word "al jefe".

So my conclusion is: when I use "le" I should state who the action is directed to, right?

fedorqui
  • 34,063
  • 114
  • 271
  • 434
ERJAN
  • 456
  • 1
  • 4
  • 12
  • I feel like "le" is unnecessary on the first sentence or even incorrect. Better: la secretaria traduce la carta al jefe – David Mar 05 '17 at 15:43
  • Not necessarily. Consider if the previous sentence was "El jefe recibe una carta en inglés. El jefe no habla inglés. La secretaria le traduce la carta." There it is very clear who the le refers to even though we didn't state it in that sentence. – user0721090601 Mar 05 '17 at 16:27

1 Answers1

4

You should state who the action is directed to only if it is necessary for the correct understanding of what you want to say.

It is the same as in English where you could say "She translates the letter for him" and then you don't know who's "him"

In your example it is clear that she is translating the letter for him/her

Ella traduce la carta = She translates the letter

Ella le traduce la carta = She translates the letter for him/her

If it is not understood from the rest of the context and it is required that the reader/listener understands that you are talking about the boss then you have to say "Ella le traduce la carta al jefe"

Community
  • 1
DGaleano
  • 10,622
  • 5
  • 32
  • 57
  • but the problem is: le can mean him\her, we dont know the gender – ERJAN Mar 07 '17 at 03:48
  • That is correct but in "Ella le traduce la carta a su jefe" you don't know the gender of "boss" either. As I said in the answer. If it is required that the listener/reader gets all the information you have to say explicitly the subject and its gender. LE only specifies that she is doing the action for someone else and not for herself. – DGaleano Mar 07 '17 at 12:47