Unit 9: Pronouns (Part 3)
9.2 Prepositional Object Pronouns
These tend not to cause comprehension difficulty, as all are the same as subject pronouns, with two exceptions, the meanings of which are deducible:
| Es para mí. | It’s for me (myself). |
| Es para ti. | It’s for you (yourself). (fam. s.) |
Note above the two possible translations. Spanish also employs prepositional reflexive pronouns, all of which correspond to the English “-self” or “-selves.” The prepositional reflexive pronouns have a different third person pronoun.
| mí | myself |
| ti | yourself (fam.) |
| sí | himself, herself, yourself (form.), itself |
| nosotros/-as | ourselves |
| vosotros/-as | yourselves (fam.pl.) |
| sí | themselves, yourselves (form. [fam.pl. in L.A.]) |
Note the multiple meanings of sí, which are determined by the subject to which the pronoun refers.
| Esto en sí no es difícil. | This in itself is not difficult. |
| Guillermina lo repite para sí. | Guillermina repeats it to herself. |
Sí may be followed by a form of mismo for emphasis or clarification.
| Lo hacen por sí mismas. | They’re doing it for (by) themselves. (fem.) |
| Lo repetí para mí mismo. | I repeated it to myself. |
The necessity for the prepositional reflexive pronoun object (sí) as well as the simple prepositional pronoun object (él, ella, etc.) can be seen in the following contrast:
| Eloísa lo compró para ella. | Eloísa bought it for her. |
| Eloísa lo compró para sí (misma). | Eloísa bought it for herself. |
In the first example, Eloísa bought something for another person. Without the existence of sí, Spanish would not be able to express that “She bought it for herself.” Similarly:
| Rolando lo trajo para él. | Rolando brought it for him. |
| Rolando lo trajo para sí (mismo). | Rolando brought it for himself. |
When combined with preposition con, mí, ti and sí become conmigo, contigo (as previously seen) and consigo. The third persons singular and plural (all expressed by consigo) take on a reflexive meaning:
| Gerardo está enojado consigo. | Gerardo is angry with himself. |
| Siempre llevan al perro consigo. | They always take the dog along with them (themselves). |
