Breakdown of Recolectamos prendas para las personas necesitadas y se las damos.
y
and
la persona
person
para
for
dar
to give
las
them (feminine direct object)
se
to him / to her / to them / to you (formal)
recolectar
to collect (gather, harvest)
la prenda
garment
necesitado
needy
Questions & Answers about Recolectamos prendas para las personas necesitadas y se las damos.
Why does the sentence use se las instead of les las?
When you have an indirect object pronoun (le or les) right next to a direct object pronoun that starts with the letter L (lo, la, los, las), the first one changes to se. This avoids the awkward tongue-twister sound of les las. Here, se stands in for les and means to them (the needy people), while las means them (the garments).
Could I attach the pronouns to the end and say damoselas?
Not in this specific sentence. Because damos is a regular conjugated verb in the present tense, the object pronouns se and las must go immediately before it. You can only attach double pronouns to the end of a verb if it is an infinitive (like dar), an -ing form (like dando), or a positive command.
Why use prendas instead of ropa for clothing?
Both work, but they change the grammar slightly. Ropa refers to clothing as a general category and is usually singular. Prendas refers to individual garments or items of clothing, so it is plural. If you used ropa here, the end of the sentence would change to se la damos because ropa is a feminine singular noun.
I have seen se used in phrases where someone does something to themselves. Is this the same se?
It looks exactly the same, but it is doing a different job here. The se you saw before is a reflexive pronoun showing someone doing an action to themselves. In this sentence, se is simply a disguise for the indirect object pronoun les (to them) so that it does not clash with the word las.
Learn Recolectamos prendas para las personas necesitadas y se las damos and more in Spanish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free