Language Lessons #2

These photos were taken in Teotihuacan which is a site where an ancient mess-american civilisation built an entire city. Here is the 'Pyramid of the Moon'. 

Spanish just keeps getting more confusing. And, at the same time it's also getting easier. It's a weird juxtaposition because as I understand more and more of the language, curveballs keep getting thrown into the mix that are just puzzling. There's no other way to put it, other than a lot of things puzzle me mucho amounts.

For example, I was in my Spanish class and the topic of the day was 'indirect object pronouns'. I shudder at grammar, I really do, and these words together just do not inspire confidence. I'm ashamed to admit that I did not know what an indirect object pronoun was. That's the benefit of just knowing your mother tongue, it's instinctive and you can just use all of the grammatical devices without having to think about them. You know where they're placed and when to use them. So, unsurprisingly, just like dropping the subject pronouns in Spanish, indirect object pronouns are completely different to English.

This is the view from the 'Pyramid of the Sun'

So before I start my rambling on IOP (I'm tired of typing indirect object pronouns) I'd like to clarify that I understand direct object pronouns which in English are basically 'Me/You/Him/Her/It/You/Us/Them'. They replace the direct object in a sentence, for example, 'He cooked the meat' becomes 'He cooked 'it' ('it' replacing the meat'). Simple, easy, that's okay. In Spanish:
He cooked the meat --> Cocina la carne
He cooked it --> La cocina
As you can see the direct pronoun goes before the verb. So a little confusion, not too bad though, you just have to concentrate. However, like subject pronouns, it's just the build up of the layers of confusion. So now we move onto the IOP.

I'm not sure how to explain this without confusing and boring you but I'm going to attempt it.
IOP basically are when you want to say 'for me/for you/for him or her/for you/for us/for them'
In Spanish the direct pronouns are me/te/lo/la/nos/los/las
The indirect object pronouns me/te/le/nos/les
So basically, they're the same apart from the third person which changes to become unspecific. 'Le' can mean to him OR to her and 'les' means 'to them' (masculine or feminine). I mean the mind just boggles. For example:
He cooked the meat for Carlos- --> 'meat'=DP     'Carlos'=IOP
So replacing the objects with pronouns, this sentence becomes 'He cooked it for him' (it=meat.  for him=in reference to Carlos)
In Spanish this is flipped on its head quite literally.
He cooked the meat for Carlos --> Cocina la carne para Carlos
And then switching for the pronouns
He cooked it for him --> Se la cocina (Literally 'for him it I cook')
I have taken to reading sentences backwards because that's the only way I can attempt to understand them.

'Pyramid of the sun' taken from the 'Pyramid of the Moon'

You may be thinking, but Orla, where did the 'se' come from? Enter layer 4 of confusion. Spanish likes things to sound harmonious. So when there is a singular or plural third person indirect object pronoun (what the hell did I just write?) 'le' changes to 'se'
I cooked it for him --> Le la cocina (not acceptable, it's just a jumble to say, hence 'le' becomes 'se')
--> Se la cocina
Another example:
I sent the bag to Barbara (Envio la bolsa a Barbara) --> I sent it to her (Le la envio --> Se la envio)
I sent the present to Barbara and Kevin (Envio los zapatos a Barbara y Kevin) --> I sent them to them (Les los envio --> Se los envio). I know we wouldn't really say that in English but for explanation purposes pretend that we do.


And it's Spanish, so let me explain the fourth layer of confusion. Sometimes they don't replace the indirect object of the sentence with the pronoun. They use both. For example:
--> La señorita les hace muñecas a sus hijos en Navidad (The lady makes dolls for her children for Christmas)
The thing highlighted in red is the IOP, but instead of replacing the indirect object (hijos), it is included in the sentence as a kind of compliment and anticipation of the indirect object. This is an accepted way to use the language. I think you can hear my eyes rolling. I have decided I do not love pronouns, they take way too much planning.

The site is huge. It consists of villages, pyramids and numerous paths leading to ruins. It is UNESCO heritage site and is located just outside of Mexico City. I would recommend visiting. 

And I thought I was going crazy because I was never really taught this at university and whenever I tried to read Spanish there were lo's, la's, te's, me's etc all over the place. I thought they were just using it to spice up the writing and it didn't mean anything. How wrong I was. And you may be thinking, well what were you saying when you wanted to give something to something. Dear reader, they have a simpler way of saying this (IOP is the fancy, show off way) which is 'a mí, a ti, a el/ella' (meaning to me/to you/ to him OR her).

Furthermore (confusion layer 100), they use lo for EVERYTHING. Absolutely bloody everything. Lo que/la que means what, lo cual/la cual means which. I'm like please can you just use another word other than those 2 letters. Please, just invent something else and stop repeating it because it makes life extremely difficult trying to decipher and remember all the different contexts of this stupid little word.

I could honestly ramble about this all day because even though it is highly irritating it's also fascinating to see how another language functions, even if it makes very little sense (I'm getting there, I'm sure English can be just as loco). I'm not going to ramble, but if you had the time and the interest I would. I'm sure next month I'll have discovered something else that just doesn't make sense to interminably ramble about; stay tuned, I'll try and discover something more fun than pronouns (internal shudder).