" A Roberto le duele la cabeza"
When I want to say Robert's head hurts, do I need a personal "a"? So do I say:
A Roberto le duele la cabeza,
O
Roberto le duele la cabeza.
O
Le duele la cabeza Roberto
Sorry, I have just a slight confusion! Any help would be appreciated.
4 Answers
A Roberto le duele la cabeza - Correct. Roberto gets the pain with "a Roberto" (and "le")
Roberto le duele la cabeza. - This means that Roberto gives pain to him/her, and then you say "la cabeza" for no reason.
Le duele la cabeza Roberto - Same as the previous one, but in a different order.
A Roberto le duele la cabeza,
The a Roberto is just a clarification tag for the i.o.p. le. It is no different than
A mí me duele la cabeza. where the a mí is there to emphasize the me i.o.p.
or
A María le di la pulsera.
Great question, Amy! Welcome to the forum. 
Marianne indicated that questions like this one are terrific for our exchanges. And, indeed, the question reminded me of a long-ago thread begun by study101's grammatical headache" trying to interpret "me dueles" from a song.
