Spanish language Q&A Forum

I was marked wrong for answering "Nosotros LES damos juguetes a nuestros hijos" instead of just "damos" I thought that the indirect object pronoun HAD to be used. What am I missing? When should I be using it? 

Thanks.

The test question was to conjugate maldecir into the "they" form but no explanation of how to do so was given, only for "decir" ("dicen"). But maldecir does not follow the same rule as "decir" it seem because the correct conjugation was shown to be "maldicen" (and not "maldecen," which would match the "decir" pattern). Why is there a difference in the conjugation pattern between decir and maldecir? Is there a rule to be learned? Thanks!

All these verbs are present tense + present subjunctive. Can I use the same construction with the conditional, in those cases where we are “softening” a request?

Such as: “Yo prefería que regreses más pronto.” 

Or does that need a different structure? Thank you!

What is the origin of the curious fact that certain Spanish words that end in "-a" and can refer to both male and female persons, never developed an "-o" ending to denote a male individual specifically? For example:

electricista, dentista, recepcionista.

All the examples are for when someone disagrees with the first statement. Could these ever be used to express agreement?