Laísmo refers to the use of the personal pronouns la and las as the feminine indirect object , thus replacing the forms le and les . This is a modality that is not appropriate according to the educated standard of our language .
According to the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), following the rules of etymology, the pronouns le and les should assume the function of indirect feminine complement. The use of la and las , in this framework, is anti-etymological.
It is believed that Laísmo originated in the Middle Ages in the Castile region. Today, several Spanish dialects continue to use it, especially in Castile and León , Cantabria and Extremadura .
Let's look at a specific case of laísmo. Suppose someone wants to comment that he gave his niece a doll. This person should say: “Le regalé una muñecas a mi niece” . However, if he incurs in laísmo, he will express himself in this way: “La regalé una muñecas a mi niece” .
Similarly, if a young man tells his friends about a request for forgiveness he made to his girlfriend, he should say: “After the fight, I asked my girlfriend for forgiveness because I know I was wrong.” With laísmo, on the other hand, he would say: “After the fight, I asked my girlfriend for forgiveness because I know I was wrong.”
Other examples of laísmo: “My mother likes ballet” , “I asked her to leave the bar, but the girl ignored me” , “I asked her what was wrong and she started crying” .
One of the areas in which laísmo is most frequently present is the Madrid dialect , and the verbs that usually appear in this context are the following:
* say: "I told her I would go around seven in the evening";
* give: "Since they didn't specify the model, I gave them this one.";
* like: "She really likes this dish, and that's why I prepared it.";
* put: "I'm going to put on some music for them, let's see if they calm down for a while.";
* count: "I'm sorry, but I've told you the whole truth.";
* remove: "It's decided: this month I'm taking away her allowance for not having studied.";
* write: "Even though it is no longer used, I have written her a letter to explain what happened.";
* ask: "Let me ask her and I'll tell you.".
Another verb that is quite frequently incorrectly complemented with the personal pronoun la is ver , although in this case it is necessary to make some clarification as well as offering an example sentence. When we use it in reference to a person we see, it is correct to use la or lo : «Yesterday afternoon I saw her in the square in the center» . However, if we want to refer to a part of her body or one of her belongings, then the correct thing to do is to use le : «I saw her face as I passed by and I didn't recognize her» .
That said, it is understood that reversing these words leads to cases of leísmo and laísmo . It is not correct to say « La vi la cara» or « Le vi en la plaza» . It should be noted that this tendency is not common in Latin America, although there are others there, as occurs everywhere in the world with respect to linguistic rules , as difficult to follow strictly as they are unstable.
With some verbs, a situation may arise in which the meaning of the sentence is not understood unless we know whether the speaker is incurring in laísmo. A very clear example occurs with the verb pega : «La pegó» can mean that the subject hit another person or that he attached an object to another.