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, the pronouns 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.