leísmo
Spanish, noun/leˈismo/
leísmo is spelled L-E-Í-S-M-O (6 letters) and appears about once in every 13 million words in written Spanish, the 132,280th most frequent Spanish word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Leísmo is a Spanish masculine noun meaning “the practice of using le as a direct object pronoun when referring to people” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) defines it as “Sustitución de los pronombres personales lo y la por le en la posición de complemento directo y en los verbos…”.
What does leísmo mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinethe practice of using le as a direct object pronoun when referring to people
Source: English Wiktionary, Spanish section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Spanish dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Sustitución de los pronombres personales lo y la por le en la posición de complemento directo y en los verbos que tradicionalmente rigen el caso acusativo (también llamados verbos transitivos) en español.
The definition in the Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), in Spanish.
Source: Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of leísmo
- leísmos plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce leísmo?
- /leˈismo/
- [leˈiz.mo]
- [leˈismo]
Sources: English Wiktionary, Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is leísmo in Spanish?
leísmo appears about once in every 13 million words in written Spanish.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).