auxiliary: Estfi el leyendolo ? is he reading it? See 631. 241.

4.  listed (abbreviated Vd., V., U., or Ud.) is a contraction for Vuestra merced, your grace, once the common mode of polite address requiring the 3rd. pers. sing. of the verb, just as does for example, your honor, in English. This pronoun and its plural, ustedes (abbreviated Vds., VV. UU., or Uds.), are by far the most common pronouns of direct address. They and their corresponding case-forms are third person in form, but second person in meaning. They are masculine or feminine. 242.

5. It, when subject in English, is usually unexpressed in Spanish, necessarily so in the case of impersonal verbs: nieva, it is snowing, and when it in English is merely the

representative subject ": es bueno hablar espariol, it is well to speak Spanish, the real subject being the infinitive hablar. 243.

6. When it is necessary to make clear that it refers to a noun previously mentioned, it is el or ella, according to the gender of the noun in mind. If it refers to an idea or statement ello is used as subject chiefly in the expression ello es que, the fact is that. Ello and its corresponding forms, le and lo, have no plural. 244.

7. It is sometimes necessary, in order to

make clear the subject of an infinitive or gerund, to use a subject pronoun placed after these verb forms: al venir 61, parti, when he came, I left; creyendo yo esto,

tratO de convencerme, since I believed this, he tried to convince me. 245.

8. When the infinitive or gerund is compound, the subject pronoun usually comes between the two component parts: por haber el venido, because of his having come; habiendo el venido, he having come. 246.

9. In old-fashioned Spanish vos, used with the 2nd pers. pl. of the verb, was the pronoun of polite address, singular or plural: vos lo hicisteis, you did it. 247.

10. Ellos and ellas are used frequently as subject when referring to things, especially for the sake of emphasis: ellas son las que quiero, they are the ones I want. 248.

z. Indirect object forms (dative). These denote the person to or for whom the action is done. 249.

1. They normally precede the verb with which they are used: me da el libro, he gives me the book. 250.

2. When a verb has both indirect and direct object pronouns the indirect precedes the direct and both usually precede