Posted by AVISO: Because of the way the search engines work, I am unable to put an accent on the words 
leísmo and laísmo in the following text. As you read them, please insert a mental tilde. Thanks!
Is Leismo an illness?
Firstly, let’s state that, no, it’s not ‘una enfermedad’. It’s simply a way of using the direct (Shoot AT ME list) and indirect pronouns (Furniture remover’s list) in a slightly different way.
The issue is, however, that if you don’t understand what they are and how they affect spoken and written Spanish then you will be confused.
No, wait, you will be more than confused. You will tear your hair out with frustration.
And so this is why…
I’ve created this blog and video to complement the series on Pronouns that I have just recently uploaded to Youtube.
You see, no matter how well you think you know the pronouns, the Leistas and the Laistas (people who practice el lesimo) will apparently break all the rules.
Rules within aparent chaos
At first glance the way lesistas and laistas use their pronouns may see a bit random and chaotic but trust me, it isn’t. There are very clear rules about how they are used and when the official rules should be broken and when they should not.
To understand it you have to watch the video
Rather than duplicate the same information here in the blog, to understand just what Leismo and Laismo is, just watch the video. However, what I intend to do in this blog is to give you some further insights into this language phenomenon.
I practice Leismo and Laismo, but I’m working on it
After nearly eleven years of living with my beautiful leista/laista wife, I have become one myself. It wasn’t intentional, I have to say, it just happened naturally.
What has happened lately, however, is that more and more of our students are coming from the USA and so it’s very unfair to teach them a regional idiosyncrasy that doesn’t apply to Latin America.
So it’s for that reason that I’m working now on changing that. Trust me, it’s not as easy as you might imagine. Once you have your language into the ‘unconciously competent’ level of learning, it’s a bit more of a challenge. However, by teaching it, I end up teaching my own self again.
Loísmo
Just as Spain has it’s variations, so do some countries in Latin America. Their issue is loísmo which is the over use of LO when they should be using LE. So, the best thing to do, to ensure that you learn it correctly the first time round is to watch this series of videos on Youtube and really get a good understanding of how they work.
AVISO: Just as a last warning, be prepared for people to correct you when you use the pronouns. However, do not accept their correction without analysing why they are correcting you. It could be leismo they are teaching you or laismo or even loismo.
Enjoy the video.
Gordon 🙂
Video for This Spanish Lesson
Audio for This Spanish Lesson
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