Small attached words
Which small words lean on a neighboring word?
Meaning
Some short grammar words lean on a neighboring word instead of standing on their own. They can express meanings such as possession or questions while depending on another word for their sound or position. Languages differ in which words behave this way, and some use full words or endings instead. Unlike Endings, these elements can attach to a whole phrase rather than to one word's stem.
How to spot it
Look for a short grammar element that has no stress of its own or must sit beside another word, even when it belongs in meaning to a larger phrase.
In your native language
English uses short attached forms of auxiliary verbs, the verbs that help build a sentence: 'll for will and 's for is or has. The possessive 's also attaches at the end of the phrase naming the owner, not necessarily to its main noun. These small forms depend on a neighboring word and are called clitics.
I'll call you after lunch.
'll is the attached short form of will.
She's waiting outside.
Here 's stands for is.
The man next door's dog is friendly.
's attaches to the end of the whole phrase the man next door.
In your learning language
Spanish clitics are short, unstressed pronouns such as me, lo, and se that lean on the verb. They normally go before a verb with a person ending, but attach in writing to infinitives such as dar, -ndo forms such as dando, and affirmative commands. When le or les comes immediately before lo, la, los, or las, it changes to se.
No lo encuentro.
I can't find it.
Lo stands before the verb, after no.
¿Puedes mandármelo hoy?
Can you send it to me today?
Me and lo attach to mandar; ¿Me lo puedes mandar hoy? is also possible.
Ya se lo di a Lucía.
I already gave it to Lucía.
Le changes to se before lo; se refers to Lucía here.
Learners whose language allows pronouns to stand freely may put these pronouns between two verbs, as in *Puedes me lo mandar. Learners whose language keeps recipient and object pronouns unchanged may use *le lo instead of se lo.