Can't figure out what is wrong here...

Question

I turned in a spanish essay with this sentence:

Prefiero que a él sea muy inteligente.

The teacher hands it back to us with symbols as to what kind of corrections we should make. For this sentence, she crossed out the "a" after "que".

Later in the essay, she wrote little lines in between some of my words, like these sentences, for example:

Me encanta pasar tiempo con mi familia y amigos y es bueno que él le encante pasar tiempo con ellos.

Es mejor que él le gusten los animales.

También es importante que él le guste la naturaleza.

For these sentences, she drew a line underneath the sentence and in between the words "que" and "él" for each sentence. Naturally, I thought to put an "a" there. However, according to my previous sentence at the beginning of the essay, that isn't right. So what is right? What words am I missing in each of these sentences?

Answer 1

Hi Poppy, I believe the issue is the subject and the object. Or, in other words, whether are not you are using gustar or a similar verb.

In the first sentence, I think you are trying to use the personal "a" when it is not needed.

In the next sentences, you do need the "a" if you want to say, for clarification or emphasis, "a él.¨ You can say

Es mejor que le gusten los animales.

To add emphasis or clarification, however, you use "a él." It´s always this way with gustar and similar verbs.

Es mejor que a él le gusten los animales.

For example, I might say:

Me gustan los libros de Isabel Allende.

To add emphasis, or to stress my difference of opinion with a friend, I can say

A mí me gustan los libros de Isabel Allende. You must use the "a" in these cases.

I hope that helps!

Thank you very much! I knew I was wrong, I just didn't know how to fix it! So thanks for the explaination! : ) - PoppyPatch, Apr 11, 2011

Very good explanation. Good job chris.:) - Deanski, Apr 12, 2011

Answer 2

Prefiero que a él sea muy inteligente. Prefiero que sea muy inteligente (él) is unnecessary as long as it´s understood who is being discussed.

Me encanta pasar tiempo con mi familia y amigos y es bueno que él le encante pasar tiempo con ellos. Me encanta pasar el tiempo con mi familia y mis amigos y es bueno que a él le encante pasar el tiempo con ellos. Here I would use "él" to avoid possible confusion because there are various people being discussed.

Es mejor que él le gusten los animales. Es mejor que le gusten los animales.... or..... Es mejor que a él le gusten los animales.

También es importante que él le guste la naturaleza. También es importante que a él le guste la naturaleza...... or ..... También es importante que le guste la naturaleza.

As you can see, it can become a little confusing when the unnecessary personal pronoun is mentioned.

Answer 3

Prefiero que A él sea muy inteligente. = I prefer that TO he is very smart. (???)

...y es bueno que Él le encante pasar tiempo con ellos = ... and it is great that spending time with them HE pleases.

...y es bueno que A él le encante pasar tiempo con ellos = ... and it is great that spending time with them pleases HIM.

Es mejor que ÉL le gusten los animales. = It is better that animals please HE.

Es mejor que A él le gusten los animales. = It is better that animals please HIM.