Indirect object pronouns

First of all: what is an indirect object? Anything that can answer the questions To whom? and For whom? is an indirect object, as in Parlo a mio fratello  and Oggi preparo una torta per Luisa, where a mio fratello and per Luisa are indirect objects of the verbs parlare and preparare.  Indirect objects almost always refer to people. Consider the following example:

In the example above, le stands for alla zia. We use le to avoid repeating alla zia.  Le is a pronoun, that is, it stands in the place of a noun, in this case, an indirect object. Here is the complete list of indirect pronouns:

Like all pronouns, these pronouns always go before the conjugated verb, i.e.: mi telefoni, gli rispondo, etc.  except for loro. You can either say io gli parlo or io parlo loro [I talk to them].

However, when there is a verb + an infinitive, it can go either before the conjugated verb or be attached to the end of the infinitive after you have dropped the last letter of the infinite, as in scrivere > scriver. Consider the two possible answers to the following question:

Hai già scritto al nonno?

• No, ma gli voglio scrivere presto.
• No, ma voglio scrivergli presto.

As you already know, the verb piacere comes with indirect pronouns. Here are more verbs that commonly use indirect objects:

We can also:

• comprare qualcosa, cucinare qualcosa, fare qualcosa, preparare qualcosa  a / per qualcuno
• portare [to bring] qualcosa, restituire [to return] qualcosa a qualcuno.