Breakdown of El orfanato pidió juguetes para los niños necesitados. Vamos a comprárselos.
el niño
the boy
comprar
to buy
ir
to go
a
to
para
for
pedir
to ask for / to order
el juguete
toy
se
to him / to her / to them / to you (formal)
los
them (masculine direct object)
necesitado
needy
el orfanato
orphanage
Questions & Answers about El orfanato pidió juguetes para los niños necesitados. Vamos a comprárselos.
Why is it se los instead of les los in comprárselos?
In Spanish, whenever an indirect object pronoun (le or les) is immediately followed by a direct object pronoun that starts with "l" (lo, la, los, las), the first pronoun changes to se. Here, "for them" (the children) would normally be les, and "them" (the toys) is los. To avoid the awkward sound of les los, it changes to se los.
Can I put the pronouns se los somewhere else in the sentence?
Yes! Because vamos a comprar is a verb phrase made up of a conjugated verb (vamos) and an infinitive (comprar), you have flexible placement. You can attach the pronouns to the end of the infinitive, as in the example: Vamos a comprárselos. Or, you can place them before the conjugated verb: Se los vamos a comprar. Both mean the exact same thing and are widely used.
Why does comprárselos have an accent mark?
When you attach pronouns to the end of an infinitive, you are adding extra syllables to the word. However, the spoken stress must stay on the same vowel it was on originally (com-prar). Because the new word ends in an "s", the natural stress rules would normally force the emphasis onto the second-to-last syllable (se). To override this and keep the stress on the "a", you must write an accent mark: comprárselos.
Why is it pidió instead of "pedió"?
Pedir (to ask for) is a stem-changing verb. While -ar and -er verbs don't have stem changes in the past tense (preterite), some -ir verbs do! For these verbs, the "e" changes to an "i" only in the third-person forms (he, she, it, they). So, it's yo pedí (I asked), but el orfanato pidió (the orphanage asked).
Why do we use para instead of por for "for the needy children"?
You use para here because it indicates the recipient or destination of the items. The toys are destined to go to the children. If you used por instead, it would mean "on behalf of"—implying the orphanage asked for the toys because the children couldn't ask for themselves, rather than identifying who gets the toys.
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