Learn Spanish (Latin America): La joya es muy cara. Él se la regala. - The jewel is very expensive. He gives it to her as a gift.

In Spanish, you cannot put le or les right in front of lo, la, los, or las. It sounds like a tongue twister! To fix this, the first pronoun changes to se. So, what would logically be le la becomes se la.

What exactly does the la stand for in Él se la regala?

The la is the direct object pronoun meaning "it". It refers back to la joya (the jewel). Because joya is a feminine noun, you must use la instead of lo.

se can mean a lot of things. How do we know it means "to her" in this sentence?

By itself, Él se la regala could mean he gifts it "to him", "to her", "to them", or "to you" (formal). We know it means "to her" here because of the English translation provided. In a real conversation, you would already know who se refers to from the context.

Why use regala instead of da for "gives"?