Breakdown of La receta es fácil. Ahora se la enseño.
ser
to be
fácil
easy
ahora
now
la
it / her (f)
enseñar
to show, to teach
se
to/for him, her, them (before another object pronoun)
la receta
the recipe
Questions & Answers about La receta es fácil. Ahora se la enseño.
Why does the sentence say se la instead of le la?
This is the core rule for double object pronouns! When you put the indirect object pronoun le (to her) right before the direct object pronoun la (it), the le changes to se. Spanish does this because having two pronouns starting with the letter 'L' back-to-back is hard to say and sounds awkward.
What does the la in se la refer to?
It refers to la receta (the recipe). Because receta is a feminine noun, Spanish uses the feminine direct object pronoun la to mean 'it'.
How do we know who is showing the recipe if there is no word for 'I' in the Spanish sentence?
The verb enseño gives it away. It ends in -o, which is the present tense ending for yo (I). Spanish usually drops subject pronouns like yo because the verb ending already makes it completely clear who is doing the action.
Could se mean something other than 'to her' in this sentence?
Yes! Because se takes the place of both le (to him/her/you formal) and les (to them/you all), it can mean any of those things. We only know it means 'to her' here because of the English translation. If a Spanish speaker wanted to avoid confusion in real life, they might add a ella to the end of the sentence.
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