Breakdown of Se lo daré a quien lo necesite.
a
to
necesitar
to need
lo
it / him (m)
dar
to give
se
to/for him, her, them (before another object pronoun)
quien
who, whom
Questions & Answers about Se lo daré a quien lo necesite.
Why is necesite in the subjunctive rather than the indicative?
We use the subjunctive here because the person who needs it is unknown or has not been identified yet. If you already knew specifically who needed it, you would use the indicative necesita. By using necesite, the sentence implies giving it to whoever might happen to need it.
What exactly does the se in se lo daré refer to?
It refers forward to a quien lo necesite (to whoever needs it). In Spanish, when the indirect object pronouns le or les come right before a direct object pronoun like lo, the indirect pronoun changes to se to avoid the awkward sound of le lo. Including this redundant pronoun is standard in Spanish even when the actual recipient is explicitly named later in the sentence.
Why do we need the preposition a right before quien?
The verb dar (to give) requires the preposition a to indicate the recipient. Additionally, because the recipient is a person, it acts as the personal a which is required when a person is the object of the action.
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