9.1 - Estructuras - la "a" personal
Completion requirements
Estructuras
Tú y Gael conocen a Marta, una puertorriqueña que te cuenta sobre la
historia de su pueblo, Vieques. Escucha la grabación donde Marta
describe su juventud y como es crecer en la pequeƱa isla de Vieques.
Did you notice in listening to Martaās story how she used the preterite and the imperfect? Go back and listen again: what verbs can you hear in the preterite? In the imperfect? It is very challenging to know when to use one or the other. One way to help us, as we have already learned is by using adverbios de tiempo. Another way, is to think about events happening on a timeline. We can look at the timeline below and see āsuddenā events (the preterite) on the top of the timeline, and ādescriptiveā events (the imperfect) on the bottom of the timeline.
Martaās story also showed the use of the āpersonal āaāā in Spanish. We looked briefly at this Spanish grammar point in Unit 4, however, we can review when we use it here.
Remember: in Spanish, when people are the direct objects of verbs, we need to place an āaā in front of them. The direct objects are the people/things that receive an action. The personal āaā is only used when the object receiving the action is a person.
In Martaās examples, she said:
ConocĆ a todos mis mejores amigos aquĆ.
Who did she meet? All of her best friends (people).
Visitaba a los abuelos y veĆa a los primosā¦
Who did she visit? Her grandparents (people). Who did she see? Her cousins (people).
Ayudaba a la familia con el trabajo del mercado de nuestro barrio.
Who did she help? Her family (people).
Who did she meet? All of her best friends (people).
Visitaba a los abuelos y veĆa a los primosā¦
Who did she visit? Her grandparents (people). Who did she see? Her cousins (people).
Ayudaba a la familia con el trabajo del mercado de nuestro barrio.
Who did she help? Her family (people).
Letās look at some different examples with verbs that are often accompanied by a personal āaā.
Veo a mi madre los lunes. | Veo la televisión los lunes. |
Ricardo llama a su esposa mucho. | Ricardo llama para la oficina mucho. |
Los niños visitan a los abuelos cada verano. | Los niños visitan el zoológico cada verano. |
Ella quiere mucho a Fernando. | Ella quiere nadar en el mar. |
Conozco a tu hermana, Lali. | Conozco el pueblo de tu hermana, Lali. |
Practiquemos en la siguiente pƔgina.