Thread: Personal "a"
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Old December 14, 2018, 09:55 PM
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Rusty Rusty is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BobRitter View Post
Quiero hablar a su madre. The "a" is required, yo lo sé.

A él no le gusta tomar el sol. ¿Es necesario la "a" aquí?

To him it isn't pleasing to sunbathe.
Sunbathing is not pleasing to him. Hence the "a".

Después de pensarlo más, creo que contesté a mi propia pregunta.

Como siempre, gracias.
Both are necessary.

In your first example, you're not dealing with the so-called personal a. 'a su madre' is the indirect object, and a is the preposition that introduces it. (What you want to say/speak is the direct object, by the way.)

In your second example, the preposition a is introducing the indirect object (equating to the 'to' that precedes 'him', in English).

By the way, 'sunbathing' is the subject of the sentence, in both languages. The Spanish infinitive, acting as a noun, is the equivalent of the English gerund, a verbal ending in '-ing', whose role is a noun. This ending is also found on the English present participle (as in 'He is sunbathing'), which is used to form the progressive. That equates to the Spanish gerundio (as in 'Él está tomando el sol'), used for the same purpose.

Last edited by Rusty; December 14, 2018 at 10:37 PM. Reason: corrected and augmented answer
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