Que VS a la que...

Question

I was reading through the questions here on the forum and found this phrase that was corrected by a native Spanish speaker.

Buscamos a una persona a la que le guste...

Now, I am quite confused as to why you need two 'A's in the sentence. Whenever I see a phrase like that, it is usually worded something like 'busco a alguien que...'.

Can anybody explain the grammar behind this? Is it because the verb that follows is 'gustar', and we put 'a mi me gusta' or ' a ella le gusta'? Is this the same concept?

Thanks

Answer 1

IIf you could say in Spanish "ella gusta música", you would say " busco a una persona que guste música"

But you can't do that in Spanish, you have to say:

A ella le gusta la música --> "busco a alguien a quien le guste la música" or busco a una persona a la que le guste la música.

This happen with verbs like "gustar", but there are others verbs in which this does not happen:

María sabe cantar --> Busco a alguien que sepa cantar.

I think it happens with lots of other verbs :) - lorenzo9, Jan 6, 2011

Sure! I expressed myself bad, I meant : there are also verbs in which this does not happen. - cogumela, Jan 6, 2011

expressed myself badly/poorly (I wouldn't say either one personally, but they aren't incorrect). . .verbs with which. :) - lorenzo9, Jan 6, 2011

Answer 2

I really don't think you should use the personal a at all in this case because you are talking about an unknown person. If you were talking about an unknown person the only direct objects that take the personal a would be alguien or nadie. There could be something I'm missing though.

This is not the personal a (i.e. it is not being used to introduce the direct object).

In this case it is used to mark the indirect object of the verb gustar

---

Compare the following two translations:

Buscamos a una persona a la que le guste hablar

?We are searching for a person who enjoys speaking

?We are searching for a person for/to whom speaking is enjoyable

Notice that only the second translation remains faithful to the original syntactic structure, and that in English the more common phrase would be the one in which the syntactic structure is altered.

O.k. that makes sense. Thanks! - pescador1, Jan 6, 2011

Izanoni1 is right! - lazarus1907, Jan 6, 2011

There is no difference in meaning between the two sentences in English, unless you use "to whom" which results in a really odd sentence. - lorenzo9, Jan 6, 2011

Answer 3

I try to look it up, but all the results I get are 'alguien que le guste...' and so on.

If you focus on just the core syntactic structure when you do a google search, it should result in a more successful search. For example if you put in the key words

?"persona a la que le" (In quotes)

Google reports nearly 8 million results. Several of these on the first page include the use of the verb "gustar," but also comparing this with other results which use different verbs can be helpful in giving you a more general understanding of this particular type of sentence structure

Oh, thank you!! - NikkiLR, Jan 6, 2011

quotes - lorenzo9, Jan 6, 2011

jajaja...thanks, changed it....don't know what I was thinking :) - Izanoni1, Jan 6, 2011

Answer 4

The verb gustar requires the use of "a+subject". You say "a mi me gusta cantar", "a nosotros nos gusta bailar", "a ella le gusta jugar" (we don't often use the a+subject with yo, tu and nosotros). I think the reason for the use of A LA is related to the verb GUSTAR.

The reason is due to the fact that it takes an indirect object (incorrectly identified above as the "subject") after the preposition "a." The subject of the sentence is the object of pleasure or cause of pleasure. Thus it is directed "to sbdy/a alguien" - Izanoni1, Jan 6, 2011

The reason is for emphasis. You can say "me gusta" just as well as "a mi me gusta" . - lorenzo9, Jan 6, 2011

Answer 5

I really don't think you should use the personal a at all in this case because you are talking about an unknown person. If you were talking about an unknown person the only direct objects that take the personal a would be alguien or nadie. There could be something I'm missing though.

Answer 6

Yahoo search results:

buscamos una persona que: 3,500,000

buscamos una persona a la que : 28

Apparently the rules regarding relative pronouns take precedence on the net.

:( It seems tat way... - NikkiLR, Jan 6, 2011

You might consider that it might also be the very specific verb that you are using ("buscamos") to introduce your search with. Try searching without that verb and you should get better results. :) - Izanoni1, Jan 6, 2011

Answer 7

buscamos una persona a la que : 28

Apparently the rules regarding relative pronouns take precedence on the net.

You have to be careful of your search terms to limit it to the structure that you are acutally inerested in. I ended up with over 44 million results when I put the following into Yahoo (in parenthesis)

"persona a la que le"

Even then they are roughly equal--I think something more is afoot. - lorenzo9, Jan 6, 2011

Answer 8

Then I have one more quick question:

Is 'alguien' interchangable with 'una persona'.

Thanks to lorenzo, I can now find results for 'una person a la que le guste...', but I when I search the phrase up using 'alguien', I find 'alguien que le guste...'

Any thoughts?

Answer 9

That is what I was thinking, cogumela. Thank you for the reply.

It is just hard for me because I have never seen that phrase before. I try to look it up, but all the results I get are 'alguien que le guste...' and so on.

I have no idea why...