“I told it to him” is se lo dije in Spanish: three words. In Galician it’s díxenllo: one. If you learned Spanish first, three things about that word trip you up: the pronoun is on the end, two pronouns have merged into one, and an accent has appeared. Here’s each step.
Start with the verb
Dixen means “I said” or “I told”, the preterite of dicir.
Add who gets it
The person who receives something takes an indirect pronoun:
| Galego | Español | |
|---|---|---|
| to me | me | me |
| to you | che | te |
| to him, her | lle | le |
| to us | nos | nos |
| to you all | vos | os |
| to them | lles | les |
One trap: Spanish te covers two Galician words. Che is the you that receives something (Díxenche a verdade, I told you the truth), and te is the you that is seen, loved or called (Vinte onte, I saw you yesterday).
Add what was given
“It” is o (or a, os, as). When it meets the indirect pronoun, the two become one word:
| + o | + a | + os | + as | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| me | mo | ma | mos | mas |
| che | cho | cha | chos | chas |
| lle | llo | lla | llos | llas |
| nos | nolo | nola | nolos | nolas |
| vos | volo | vola | volos | volas |
| lles | llelo | llela | llelos | llelas |
Me, che, lle drop their last vowel. Nos, vos, lles drop the s and add an l. So lle + o is llo.
Spanish keeps the two as separate words, and changes le to se in front of lo: se lo, never le lo. Galician has no such swap.
Attach it, and add the accent
In an ordinary affirmative sentence, Galician puts the pronoun on the end of the verb, as one word: dixen + llo gives díxenllo.
The stress stays where it was, on di. With llo added, that syllable is now third from the end, and words stressed there always carry a written accent. Spanish does the same thing when it attaches pronouns: di + me + lo gives dímelo.
When the pronoun goes in front
A few things send the pronoun back in front of the verb, as a separate word:
- Negation: Non llo dixen. (I didn’t tell him.)
- Question words: Quen cho dixo? (Who told you?)
- Subordinate clauses with que: Sei que llo dixeches. (I know you told him.)
- A few words like nunca: Nunca llo dixen. (I never told him.)
Spanish is close to the opposite. The pronoun goes in front of almost every verb, and on the end only of an infinitive, a gerund or an affirmative command:
| Galego | Español | |
|---|---|---|
| I told him | Díxenllo. | Se lo dije. |
| I didn’t tell him | Non llo dixen. | No se lo dije. |
| Give it to me | Dámo. | Dámelo. |
| Don’t give it to me | Non mo deas. | No me lo des. |
Coming from Spanish, flip your habit: in Galician, start with the pronoun on the end, and move it in front after non, question words and que.
One more shape change
O and a also change with the end of the verb. After -r or -s, the verb drops that letter and the pronoun becomes lo or la: comer + o gives comelo. After a verb ending in a vowel plus -i or -u, it becomes no or na: comeu + o gives comeuno. You’ll meet both often.
Try it in Verba
In Verba 1.4, open a verb that takes object pronouns and tap the link button at the top of its conjugation screen, or tap any form in the tables. A builder opens: pick when, who, to whom and what, and it puts the form together, shows where the pronoun goes, and gives you the Spanish next to it. You can also show one pronoun on every form in the tables, to see the whole verb with it.
It works the other way too. When you meet a word like díxenllo in something you’re reading, search for it: Verba finds the verb and shows how the word splits, dixen + lle + o.
Verba’s grammar guides go further: Where the Pronoun Goes, Pronouns That Join Up, and Direct vs Indirect Object Pronouns are in the Study tab.
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