"esperando a" or "esperando"?

Question

I saw 2 sentences in my text book: 1. Está esperando a su novia. 2. Marta está esperando carta de su novio.

I'm a little bit confused: when should I put "a" after "esperando"? Can I say "Marta está esperando a carta de su novio."?

¡Muchas gracias!

Answer 1

In addition to lorenzo's comment, "esperar a" is used in the following situation as well.

Espero a que ocurra. (I'm waiting for it to happen)

If you take out the "a" this becomes:

Espero que ocurra. (I hope that it will happen)

So modifying your sentence a little we could say:

Marta está esperando a que llegue la carta de su novio.

Good tutorial! - 005faa61, Mar 24, 2011

Answer 2

está esperando a (a person, pet, or personafiable thing)

está esperando (anything else)

Answer 3

The answer to your question is that the "a" does not depend on the verb, but on the object:

Hoy espera a su novio.

Espera con impaciencia a su novio.

A su novio lo espera. (uncommon word order, by the way)

As you can see, the "a" is attached to "su novio", not to the verb. A better question would be "when does the object take the preposition "a"?"

Answer 4

For example:

Marta está esperando a su novio. (a person)

Marta está esperando una carta de su novio. (anything else)

It is the same with all verbs.

For example:

Marta vio a su novio ayer. (a person)

Marta vio una película ayer (anything else)

Answer 5

Hello dear

My name is queen(single). I was impressed when i saw your profile today at and i will like to establish a long lasting relationship with you. In addition,i will like you to reply me through this my private e-mail box([e-mail]) Thanks waiting to hear from you soon. queen I will send to you my pictures in my next mail through this my mail box

[e-mail]

Answer 6

Esperando mi carta Esperando a que llegue mi carta Esperando mi turno Esperando a mi novio Esperando a que llegue mi novio