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Specific doctor or "any" doctor?

Specific doctor or "any" doctor?

3
votes

This sentence is from the Write section of Learn Spanish lesson 4.9.

  1. Yo necesito ver el doctor para que pueda quitar ___ puntos de sutura.

I was curious if this needed to be ...ver al doctor...?

doctor is the d.o. of the sentence and clearly a person.

The question if whether the doctor is depersonalized or in other words are we saying "I need to see any doctor...."

The ''el" made me think that we were referring to a specific rather than "any" doctor, even though, it may not specify a particular individual. (contrast it with "necesito ver doctor...")

Is the personal "a" needed here?

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2595 views
updated MAR 30, 2014
posted by 0074b507

1 Answer

2
votes
  1. [Yo] necesito ver al doctor para que pueda quitarme ___ puntos de sutura.

When you say "al doctor", you refer to the one on call, your doctor, the only one in a particular place,...

If you say "un doctor", you are saying you don't care which one.

Without articles, it can only be used in a sentence like "Soy doctor".

updated AGO 11, 2009
edited by lazarus1907
posted by lazarus1907
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