"I saw her recently."

That's what I'm wondering.

From "her". So, you must say: "la" vi (a ella)

It is the simple past (indicativo pretérito) of the verb "ver". I find the wordreference.com site very useful. http://www.wordreference.com/conj/ESverbs.aspx?v=ver

Verbs ending in "ar" take on "é" or "ö" for the past. e.g hablé (I spoke), habló (he, she, you formal spoke)

Verbs ending in "er" or "ir" take on "i" or "io" for the past. e.g. vi (I saw), vio (he, she, you formal saw)

You should use the adverb

@BrettRyan3 ella is a determiner to determine who the sentence is about and not the object of the sentence. Vi (I saw), La (her). So the sentence must read La vi (i saw her, literally her I saw) or La vi a ella to clarify but it's not needed as La can only be her.