A mí, a tí, a notostros, grammatically speakingwhere do you use these?
-A mí - as in "a mí me gusta chocolate"
When this is used is it only with verbs like gustar, interesar, importar etc.
A él le da igual ... can this be used another way with other verbs too? like
Tener hambre o beber etc.
3 Answers
Gramatically, the phrases a mí, a tí, a él, a ella, a nosotros, a vosotros, a ellos, are all of them formed by the preposition "a", plus the personal pronouns for the indirect object.
Thus they can be used whith all verbs, but not in place of the direct object, but in place of the indirect object.
Examples:
Te amo a ti. Te quiero a ti. Te llamaré a ti. Te escribiré a ti. Te extrañaré a ti, etc.
Me buscó a mí. Me habló a mí. Me vio a mí. Me preguntó a mí. Me saludó a mí. Etcétera.
Le gané a él. Le pagué a él. Le entregué la carta a él. Le pasé el vaso a él. Etcétera.
In fact, in each one of the sentences above there are two pronouns instead of the indirect objectat the same time , so you could ommit the second one. As in these sentences.
Te amo. Te quiero. Te llamaré. Te escribiré. Te extrañaré, etc.
Me buscó. Me habló. Me vio. Me preguntó. Me saludó. Etcétera.
Le gané. Le pagué. Le entregué la carta. Le pasé el vaso. Etcétera.
Writing two pronouns for the indirect object is normally redundant, but can be accepted if they are used to stress the idea, so there can be no doubt. For example:
Me preguntó a mí.
Me gritó a mí.
Etcétera.
I guess your question is in the last part, about if you can use "a mí," "a ti," "a él," etc. when you use verbs other than gustar, importar, etc.
A mí, tengo hambre. = No.
A mí, bebo. = No.
In "a mí me gusta chocolate", you're basically saying that chocolate is pleasing to you. The chocolate is the one doing the action of being pleasing, and you are the recipient of that sensation. The preposition "a" here signals an indirect object, that is, that who receives the action.
Now if you say "tengo hambre", you are the one who's hungry, that is, you yourself experience the feeling of being hungry; it is not being done to you. Same goes for "bebo"; you are the doer (you are the one that drinks), not the recipient, of the action. That's why a mí (an indirect object) will not just be unnecessary, but totally wrong.
I think the standard answer is that they are used where you want to emphasize the phrase or where you include it to remove ambiguity.
[Usted] le dio el libro. (to him, to her, to it??) a él, a ella (removes the ambiguity from le)
In the gustar sentences, the A mí, me gusta... is for emphasis as no ambiguity exists.
