"A" before pronouns
I am learning spanish, and have come across a few sentences that incorporate "A" before the pronoun. Some examples...
Beginning a sentence:
A usted... or A Él...
some examples in a sentece:
¿Le gustaría a usted jugar al tenis o al golf?
A mí me gustaría jugar al golf.
What is the significance, and how do you know when to utilize it?
2 Answers
Since le and les can mean more than one thing, a prepositional phrase is often added to remove the ambiguity.
Sometimes a prepositional phrase is added not for clarity, but rather for emphasis.
Your examples do not involve the personal "a". Spanish's personal "a" only concerns direct objects of the verb that are persons or pets.
¿Le gustaría a usted jugar al tenis o al golf?
Gustar sentences are intransitive, which means there are no direct objects of the verb so the personal "a" has no meaning in this type of sentence.
The indirect object le is ambiguous without the prepositional phrase to clarify who it refers to. It could mean to him/her/you/it. The a usted is added to clarify that the le means to you.
A mí me gustaría jugar al golf.
The a mí here is used for emphasis, not clarification, since me is not ambiguous.
