According to the Manual of the New Grammar of the Spanish Language (2010, page 315), there are usually three types of leismo:
- Leism of masculine person: use of the pronoun le as accusative with masculine nouns of person: A Luis le felicitaron en la universidad.
- Leism of a female person: use of the pronoun le as an accusative with feminine nouns of person: A Juana felicitaron en la universidad.
- Leism of thing: use of the pronoun le as accusative with thing nouns: Te devuelvo el libro porque ya le he leído.
Now, a variant exemplified by types 1 and 2, is the so-called courtesy leism, which consists of limiting the leism to the uses in which it agrees with the form you, for example, le saludo cordialmente, le atenderé placenteramente. This form of leísmo has been witnessed in speakers who do not practice other forms of leísmo.
For now the origin of the leism will not be analyzed nor will it be attempted to explain the reasons for the historical, geographical or social distribution of each of the types of leismo described. I focus on sharing some considerations I make about the importance of using the unstressed pronouns le and les correctly, taking into account that we are in an ecosystem of knowledge management and writing in general. Looking at the second pronoun in question, in a sentence like: a Juan y Pedro les motivaron a integrarse a la comunidad Steemit. The correct form is: a Juan y Pedro los motivaron a integrarse a la comunidad Steemit, since the correct conjugation with gender and plural is los.
Finally it ends with an explanation that will serve to treat type 3 and know the only exception admitted by the Royal Spanish Academy, namely pay attention to the following sentence: a Juan le recomendé con @Cervantes. In effect, it is correct to say a Juan le recomendé con @Cervantes as well, a Juan lo recomendé con @Cervantes, both are admitted and considered correct. For this case three conditions must be fulfilled, which will clear any doubt about the type of leism 3, let's see:
- When it comes to a person's name
- That is masculine
- Make it plural
To conclude, it should be noted that the use of the pronoun le as an accusative referring to nouns of things, it is a grammatical error; well illustrated in the example: Te devuelvo el libro porque ya le he leído. For you are given a connotation of you to an object or thing.
I hope that the article has been of your liking, I await your evaluation and comments.