Spanish object pronoun placement: where the pronoun goes

The position of a Spanish object or reflexive pronoun (me, te, lo, la, le, nos, os, los, las, se) follows one simple rule. With a single conjugated verb the pronoun sits immediately before it: Lo veo, Me llamo Ana, Te lo digo. It never trails the verb the way “it” does in English.

The pronoun moves to the end of the word in three cases: an infinitive, a gerund (-ndo), and an affirmative command. There it attaches as one word, and you often add a written accent to keep the original stress: hacerlo, comiéndolo, dímelo. This page is about where the pronoun goes, not which pronoun to pick — choosing lo vs le and reading the many jobs of se are their own topics, linked in the two-pronoun section below.

Before a conjugated verb

This is the default and by far the most common position. Whenever you have one conjugated verb, the pronoun goes right in front of it as a separate word — nothing else comes between them.

Lo veo todos los días.
I see him every day.

Me llamo Ana y te lo explico.
My name is Ana and I’ll explain it to you.

The same holds for reflexive verbs (me levanto, se lava): the pronoun still leads the conjugated verb.

Infinitives and gerunds: attach or go before

When the sentence has an infinitive or a gerund hanging off a helping verb, you get a genuine choice. You can attach the pronoun to the end of the infinitive or gerund, or place it before the conjugated helping verb. Both are correct and mean exactly the same thing.

Quiero verte. / Te quiero ver.
I want to see you.

Está mirándome. / Me está mirando.
She is looking at me.

Notice the accent: a gerund grows when a pronoun is attached, so mirando becomes mirándome to keep the stress on the same syllable. A single pronoun on an infinitive usually needs no accent (verte, hacerlo).

Commands: attach to yes, separate for no

Commands split by polarity. With an affirmative command the pronoun attaches to the end as one word; with a negative command it jumps back in front of the verb as a separate word.

Dímelo. / No me lo digas.
Tell it to me. / Don’t tell it to me.

Siéntate. / No te sientes.
Sit down. / Don’t sit down.

For the command forms themselves — the tú, usted and plural endings — see Spanish imperative commands.

Two pronouns and the accent

When a verb carries two pronouns, the order is fixed: indirect before direct (me lo, te la, nos los). And before a direct lo, la, los, las, an indirect le or les changes to se — you say se lo di, never “le lo di”. This sound-driven swap is explained in le vs lo, and the many other jobs of se live in the se pronoun.

Se lo di a Juan.
I gave it to him.

Tráemelo, por favor.
Bring it to me, please.

Attaching pronouns is where the accent appears. The base word keeps its original stressed syllable, so adding one or two pronouns forces a written accent: di + me + lo → dímelo; comiendo + lo → comiéndolo; compra + lo → cómpralo.

Common mistakes

Putting the pronoun after a conjugated verb

English keeps “it” after the verb (“I see it”), but Spanish puts the object pronoun in front of a conjugated verb.

Veo lo. → Lo veo.
I see it.

The pronoun must lead the conjugated verb, so veo lo is not Spanish.

Reversing the order of two pronouns

With two pronouns the indirect one comes first, then the direct one — never the other way around.

Lo me da. → Me lo da.
He gives it to me.

Indirect me precedes direct lo, so the only correct order is me lo.

Forgetting the accent when attaching

When a pronoun joins an affirmative command and shifts the stress, you must write the accent that preserves it.

digamelo → Dímelo.
Tell it to me.

Without the accent the stress lands on the wrong syllable, so dímelo needs the written mark.

Placement turns into a reflex once you build whole sentences instead of memorizing rules: you naturally drop the pronoun in front of a conjugated verb, then feel when an infinitive or command wants it on the end. Fluera gives you short Spanish sentences to assemble and hear, with instant feedback on the position and the accent, so you can practice Spanish until dímelo and lo voy a hacer come out without a second thought.

Practice