English Translation
I told the secret to Tom.
Is the “Le” redundant? Or would “Conté el secreto a Tom.” also be grammatically correct?
According to my grammar book, it’s optional when the object is a noun and is placed after the verb. So here it’s redundant, but not if you substitute Tom with él. The exception is verbs like gustar, where the dative pronoun is obligatory: “Le gustó el libro a Tom”.
Curious to hear what native speakers have to say about it.
Yes, that phrase ist correct.
Conté el secreto a Tom.
Although I prefer this sentence (le conté el secreto a Tom), it’s more common in spoken and written Spanish, at least in Spain.
Achtung, you can’t always get rid of the dative form when there are two of them. If you want to know more about that, have a look at the link below from the RAE (Royal Spanish Academy).
Hope this helps.
https://www.rae.es/buen-uso-español/la-duplicación-de-complementos
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