Use of personal "a' in a series of objects
"I am looking for my sister and my niece." "Busco a mi hermana y mi sobrina." Or should it have an "a" before each person in the series "Busco a mi hermana y a mi sobrina."
I read this somewhere but can't find it again and it's bugging me, especially since I have to pay close attention to this construction or I forget and do it wrong. Very embarrassing!
¡Muchas gracias!
3 Answers
The sister and the niece have to have their own personal pronoun 'a'
Spanish often repeats modifiers with items in a series where English would not. Below is one example:
Items in a series: When two or more items are in a series, the demonstrative adjective must be used with each item. While in English we would say "those cats and dogs," in Spanish we would say esos perros y esos gatos. Use of just one demonstrative adjective in this case, as in esos perros y gatos, would imply that we're talking about animals that are a cross between a cat and a dog.
I rarely disagree with Qfreed, but I think that "esos perros y gatos" would indicate a mixed group of dogs and cats, not necessarily some cross breed. "Esos perros y esos gatos" would indicate two separate groups, one group of dogs, and another group of cats. This is similar to "the bow and arrow" as opposed to "the bow and the arrow". The first phrase refers to a set formed by different items. The second phrase would refer to two distinct and separate items.
