Learn Spanish (Latin America): El abuelo les cuenta un cuento a los niños. - The grandfather tells the children a story.

In Spanish, it is very common and usually required to use an indirect object pronoun like les (to them) even when you also state exactly who is receiving the action (a los niños). Think of les as a marker pointing to the receiver, and a los niños as the clarification of who they are.

Why is it les and not los?

We use les because the children are the indirect object of the sentence, meaning they are the ones receiving the story. The direct object, which is the thing actually being told, is the story (un cuento). In Spanish, we always use le or les for indirect objects.

What is the difference between cuenta and cuento?

They look similar but have different jobs here! Cuenta is the verb, coming from contar (to tell or to count), conjugated for the grandfather. Cuento is a noun meaning a story or a tale. So together, cuenta un cuento translates to he tells a story.

Why does the verb contar change to cuenta?