A comment on the instruction. Not a question.

Question

When there is an indirect pronoun in a sentence we use: me, te, le, nos, os, les. However when the indirect pronouns le and les (meaning to him / to her / to them) are accompanied by the direct pronoun lo, la, los or las (meaning it / them) then le and les become se to avoid a clumsy sounding le lo, le la, les los etc, which is tricky to pronounce. Listen to this example.

I would say that this sort of explanation is probably utterly useless to 80% of people. I would bet a lot of money that the majority of first language English people reading this for the firs time have no idea what a direct pronoun is nor an indirect pronoun. It seems that all study guides, and text books assume that people are an expert in the technical language of their own language. They are not.

If someone ever produced material where they explain the 'technical' term before they try to explain how to use that term it would be so much more useful than throwing the terms around with no explanation.

If you read a mechanics' manual and it said "'Locate the second differential gear chain"" would that be helpful if it was the first time that you were looking at tractor's engine?

And the very next thing I read was "With an infinitive, imperative or present participle, se and the direct object pronoun can be either at the end of the verbal structure and attached to the infinitive, imperative or the present participle forming a longer word:

Because for sure, everyone in the world knows what a present participle is.

I have now read the whole thing, and it is clearly written by an expert in the language of an expert to someone who already understands that expert language. There is no attempt to actually explain what is going on to a novice.

It is actually terrible teaching.

John O'Leary · Answer

Actually Roger, that is the tremendous feature of the Kwiziq course. All you have to do is click on the search icon and ask "past participle" or "indirect object." Grammar is rarely taught properly nowadays and the Kwiziq model has provided just about everything you may need. John

Inma Sánchez · Answer

Hi Roger,Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. I can understand where you're coming from, and you're certainly not the only learner who finds grammatical terminology a stumbling block, particularly if it wasn't something you covered in much detail at school.We do sometimes need to use grammatical terms because they're the standard way of referring to certain concepts, and they help us avoid much longer explanations. That said, we also try to support learners who aren't familiar with that terminology.In this particular lesson, if you scroll to the bottom of the page, you'll find a Related lessons section with links to short articles on direct objects and indirect objects, which explain those concepts in more detail before they're used in more advanced topics like this one.As John mentioned in this thread, you can also use the Search function on the site to look up any grammar term you're unfamiliar with. In most cases, you'll find a short article explaining the concept, which can be a useful starting point whenever you come across terminology that isn't yet familiar.It's also worth bearing in mind that our lessons are designed to be learned through the example sentences as well as the explanations. Even if you're not familiar with every grammatical term, seeing how a structure is used in context often makes the pattern much clearer, and many learners find they develop an understanding of the grammar this way without needing to know all the technical names.And, of course, if you ever come across a term or explanation that isn't clear, please don't hesitate to ask in the forum. We keep a close eye on it and are always happy to explain grammar in a different way or clarify any terminology that's getting in the way of understanding a lesson. No question is too basic, and if anything is unclear, it's always worth asking.We genuinely appreciate feedback like yours because it's a useful reminder that learners come from a wide range of backgrounds and don't all begin with the same knowledge of grammatical terminology.  As we continue to develop the site, we take comments like yours on board and use them to help us improve the learning experience for everyone. Thanks again for taking the time to share your perspective.Un saludo cordialInma