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Permalink Reply by Barrilito on August 7, 2008 at 7:57pm

Here you have some correct expressions: le= a ella (to her)

El profesor de gimnasia tiene que agarrarle (a ella) las piernas para hacer abdominales / ...sujetarle (a ella) las piernas...

El profesor de gimnasia tiene que agarrarle de las piernas para hacer abdominales / ...sujetarle de las piernas para...

Best regards

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Permalink Reply by Anne Sherwood on August 7, 2008 at 8:07pm

Oh..okay...I think I understand...I'll have a wee think about it.

Gracias

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Permalink Reply by Barrilito on August 7, 2008 at 8:10pm

De nada. Anyway you can also use "le" to say "to him" in this example:

El profesor de gimnasia tiene que agarrarle (a él) de las piernas para hacer (or "para poder hacer") abdominales.

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Permalink Reply by lazarus1907 on August 8, 2008 at 1:47am

Actually, you better avoid the leísmo and use the proper direct object pronouns:

El profesor de gimnasia tiene que agarrarlo (a él) de las piernas
El profesor de gimnasia tiene que agarrarla (a ella) de las piernas

We Spanish people always get le and lo mixed up.

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Permalink Reply by lazarus1907 on August 8, 2008 at 1:50am

But remember that it is a typical leísmo from Spain.

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Permalink Reply by Barrilito on August 8, 2008 at 6:57pm

Not exactly, it depends on the verb.

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Permalink Reply by lazarus1907 on August 9, 2008 at 10:01am

Yes exactly!

In the sentence "Agarrar a alguien de las piernas", the person you're holding is the direct object, and the direct object pronoun is "lo", so it is a "leísmo" (accepted, but not recommended), whether you like it or not. Suffice to say that it can be converted into a passive sentence, and the person of the active one becomes the subject of the passive: Fue agarrado de las piernas.

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