Le and La

Hola Janna P.

This confusion is very common among Spanish learners, especially when dealing with pronouns like le and la.

In the sentence "Yo le dije que la quería", the key is to understand that there are two different objects being referred to. The verb "decir" (to say/tell) requires an indirect object, which answers the question "to whom?" So in "le dije", "le" refers to the person you are speaking to (e.g., "I told her" or "I told him" — note that "le" works for both genders here as an indirect object).

Now, "la quería" means "I loved her". Here, "la" is a direct object pronoun, referring to the person being loved. So you're saying something like:

"I told her [that] I loved her."
In Spanish: "Le dije que la quería."

Using "la dije" would be incorrect because "decir" doesn't take a direct object pronoun like "la". You’re not "saying her" — you’re telling something to her, so "le" is the right choice.

Hope this clears it up! Let us know if you’d like examples with other verbs too.

Hasta pronto

Silvia