Se lo, se la, se los: two Spanish pronouns at once

Short answer

When a sentence needs both object pronouns, the indirect one comes first and the direct one second: te lo doy, me la dio. If the indirect pronoun is le or les, it becomes se before lo, la, los or las — so le lo doy is impossible and se lo doy is what you say.

Course · Unit: Pronouns CEFR B2 Reviewed by Jhoslyn Updated 2026-09-12

Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.

Person before thing

One sentence can carry both pronouns. The order is fixed and it never varies:

indirect first, direct second — the person, then the thing.

Te doy la receta. → Te la doy.
Me compró los zapatos. → Me los compró.
Nos va a vender la casa. → Nos la va a vender.

English does it the other way round — “I’ll give it to you” — so this needs a moment’s rewiring. La te doy is not a thing.

Le and les never survive the meeting

Put le in front of lo and Spanish refuses. Le lo doy does not exist. What you get instead is se:

María le da un libro a José. → María se lo da. Les compré los pasajes a mis papás. → Se los compré.*

The reason is old and mechanical rather than logical: Spanish will not put two l-pronouns together, so the first one changed shape centuries ago. You do not need the history, you need the reflex — le + lo = se lo, every time, no exceptions.

You mean	Not this	This
I’ll give it to him	le lo doy	se lo doy
I sent it to her	le la mandé	se la mandé
I bought them for them	les los compré	se los compré

That se is not reflexive

This is the bit that unsettles people who already know se lava, se llama, se fue. The se in se lo doy has nothing to do with reflexives and nothing to do with the impersonal se. It is simply le in disguise, forced into a new shape by the pronoun next to it.

Useful check: if there is a lo, la, los or las immediately after se, that se is almost certainly a flattened le.

Where the pair goes

They travel as a block — you can never split them.

Before a conjugated verb: Se lo di. · No me lo dijo. · ¿Te la mandaron?

With an infinitive or gerund, either before the whole thing or stuck on the end:

Se lo voy a dar. = Voy a dárselo.
Me lo está explicando. = Está explicándomelo.

Both are correct and both are common. In Lima, the “before” version is a little more frequent in speech.

With a positive command, they must attach: Dámelo. · Díselo. · Préstamela.

With a negative command, they must go in front: No me lo des. · No se lo digas.

The accent you have to write

When two pronouns attach to the end of a verb, the word grows by two syllables and the stress has to be pinned down with a written accent:

da → dámelo
dar → dárselo
explicando → explicándomelo
trae → tráemelas

Miss the accent and you have changed the word. Damelo is not a spelling variant, it is a misspelling.

Se lo is vague — say who if it matters

Se lo di can mean I gave it to him, to her, to them, or to you (usted). Spanish fixes that by adding the person back at the end:

Se lo di a él.
Se lo expliqué a la señora.
Se los mandé a ustedes.

That extra phrase is not redundant and not clumsy. It is how the language disambiguates, and Peruvians use it constantly.

The one you will hear in Lima: se los dije

Because se hides whether the person was singular or plural, speakers across Peru and most of Latin America move the plural onto the thing instead:

Se los dije a ustedes. — for se lo dije a ustedes. Ya se los expliqué a los chicos.

Strictly, lo refers to the one thing said, so it should stay singular. In practice you will hear the plural version from educated speakers every day. Understand it, expect it, and keep se lo in anything you write.

Try it

Replace both objects:

¿Le vas a dar el dinero a tu esposa? — Sí, ___ voy a dar.
¿Te van a comprar los zapatos? — Sí, ___ van a comprar.
¿Él le está vendiendo las uvas a Micaela? — Sí, ___ está vendiendo.
Tell a friend to say it to her: ___

→ 1 se lo · 2 me los · 3 se las · 4 Díselo.

→ Lo, la, le: Spanish object pronouns → The imperative, and where the pronouns land → Reflexive verbs

Topics Pronouns Peruvian Spanish

Se lo, me los, te la

Person before thing, and le turns into se. Seven sentences where both pronouns land at once.

1¿Le vas a dar el dinero a tu esposa? — Sí, ___ voy a dar.
Answer

se lo — *Le* followed by *lo* is impossible, so *le* becomes *se*. The person always comes first and the thing second.
2¿Te van a comprar los zapatos? — Sí, ___ van a comprar.
Answer

me los — The indirect *me* goes first, then *los* for the shoes. *Se los* would mean they are buying them for somebody else entirely.
3Telling a friend to say it to her, you say:
Answer

Díselo. — With a positive command both pronouns attach to the verb in the order person-then-thing, and the word needs a written accent: *díselo*.
4Me lo está explicando. The other correct way to say the same thing is:
Answer

Está explicándomelo. — Both pronouns can attach to the gerund, and then it takes an accent — *explicándomelo*. Without the accent the stress lands in the wrong place.
5Se lo compré ayer. The se here means:
Answer

to him, her, them or you — That *se* is a flattened *le* or *les*, not a reflexive. Because it hides who the person was, Peruvians add *a él*, *a ella* or *a ustedes* when it matters.
6Which is right for “don't tell him”?
Answer

No se lo digas. — Negative commands push both pronouns in front of the verb. Only positive commands take them stuck on the end.
7You hear a Limeño say “se los dije a ustedes”. Strictly it should be:
Answer

se lo dije — *Lo* stands for the one thing that was said, so it stays singular. The plural gets shifted onto it in everyday speech all over Peru — expect it, but write *se lo*.