Answer: Nosotros se las vendemos
This is a good example of the usage of <u>se</u> as an <u>indirect complement</u>, in order to substitute the indirect complement le or les.
What does this mean?
Let’s begin by explaining that the <u>Indirect Complement</u> of a sentence is the person, animal or thing that indirectly receives the action of the verb.
To identify it in a sentence, we must ask to the verb ¿a quién? (to whom?) Or ¿para quién? (for whom?)
In the case of the sentence Nosotros vendemos el pan a las personas (We sell bread to people) if we ask ourselves the following question:
¿<u>a quiénes</u> vendemos el pan?
(To whom do we sell the bread?)
The answer is:
A <u>las personas</u>
(To the people)
Being las personas (they) who indirectly receives the action, therefore t<u>he indirect complement of the sentence.
</u>
Now, the <u>Indirect Object Pronouns</u> replace a word or phrase, which in the sentence fulfills the function of indirect object.
They are written before the verb, when it is conjugated.
These pronouns are listed below:
1st person singular Yo: me
2nd person singular (informal) Tú: te
2nd person singular (formal) Usted: le
3rd person singular Él/Ella/eso/esa: le
1st person plural Nosotros: nos
2nd person plural Ustedes (In latinAmerica): les
2nd person plural Vosotros (In Spain): os
3rd person plural Ellos/Ellas: les
Then, returning to the sentence Nosotros vendemos el pan a las personas, knowing that the indirect object is las personas, who is the 3rd person plural Ellos/Ellas (they); the indirect object pronoun in Spanish is <u>les. </u>
<u></u>
In that way the initial sentence changes to:
Nosotros <u>les</u> vendemos el pan (a las personas)
We sell them bread (to people)
This is where the personal pronoun <u>se</u> comes in, as an Indirect Complement, and replacing le or les (<u>indirect object pronouns</u>), immediately followed by one of the following pronouns depending on the direct object (the part of the sentence that directly receives the action):
lo (singular masculine)
la (singular femenine)
los (plural masculine)
las (plural feminine)
In this case <u>las</u> is used because las personas is feminine and plural, therefore the sentence:
Nosotros vendemos el pan a las personas
Can be written as:
<h2>
Nosotros <u>
se</u>
<u>
las</u>
vendemos</h2>
Where <u>se</u> and <u>las</u> are the two object pronouns.