Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Yo le leo un cuento breve a mi sobrino antes de dormir. - I read a short story to my nephew before going to sleep.

What are the direct and indirect objects in the sentence Yo le leo un cuento breve a mi sobrino antes de dormir, and why is le used instead of lo?

– The direct object (DO) is un cuento breve (it’s what is being read).
– The indirect object (IO) is mi sobrino (he’s the recipient of the action).
In Spanish, IOs take the pronoun le (singular) or les (plural). Lo is a direct-object pronoun, so you would never use lo to refer to mi sobrino, since he’s not the DO but the IO.

Why do we have both le and a mi sobrino in the sentence?

Spanish requires the indirect-object pronoun (le) even when the noun phrase (a mi sobrino) is present. This “redundant” or “emphatic” IO pronoun clarifies and sometimes emphasizes who receives the action. You cannot drop le if you keep a mi sobrino.

Can we drop Yo at the beginning of Yo le leo un cuento breve a mi sobrino antes de dormir?

Yes. Spanish is a pro-drop language: the verb ending leo already signals the subject “yo.” It’s perfectly natural to say Le leo un cuento breve a mi sobrino antes de dormir.

Why is breve placed after cuento instead of before?

Most descriptive adjectives in Spanish follow the noun (→ cuento breve). Placing the adjective before (→ breve cuento) is grammatically correct but gives a more literary or formal feel.

What does antes de dormir mean, and can we express “before (he) sleeps” in other ways?

Antes de + infinitive means “before doing something.” Here it means “before (my nephew) goes to sleep.” Other options include:

antes de ir a dormir (before going to sleep)
antes de que se duerma mi sobrino (using a subjunctive clause)

Is it correct to say Yo leo un cuento breve a mi sobrino antes de dormir or Yo leo a mi sobrino un cuento breve antes de dormir? Does changing the order change the meaning?

Both word orders are grammatically correct. Spanish allows some flexibility:

Yo leo un cuento breve a mi sobrino…
Yo leo a mi sobrino un cuento breve…
The difference is subtle—either the story or the recipient comes first—but the overall meaning remains “I read a short story to my nephew before sleeping.”

How do you replace both objects with pronouns to say “I read it to him”?

You combine the indirect-object pronoun (le → se when paired) with the direct-object pronoun (lo) and place both before the verb:
Se lo leo antes de dormir.
Here lo replaces un cuento breve and se replaces le (the IO pronoun changes to se when followed by lo/los/la/las).

Should we say al mi sobrino instead of a mi sobrino? Why isn’t there a contraction?

The contraction al only appears with a + el (the definite article). Since mi is a possessive adjective, not the article el, there is no contraction. It stays a mi sobrino.