Does an unborn baby not deserve a personal "a" ?
Damas y Caballeros
Looking at the word of today :
Está esperando un niño. - She is expecting a baby.
The baby being a direct object and a person I'd assume a personal "a" is in order ? Not trying to start a "When does life begin ?" discussion, just wondering if Spanish makes a difference between unborn and born life as far as that grammatical specialty goes.
I also just realized, what if its not a baby but a born child and we mean esperar to be "waiting" ?
Está esperando a un niño - She is waiting for a child.
Correct ?
I have trouble with the different meanings of esperar in general.
9 Answers
"Esperar" means "to wait", "to await" and anything that you expect to get from waiting. Sometimes, like in English and 100% of all the languages, only context can determine the intended meaning.
Now, the "a" implies familiarity about a person, or the fact that someone, at some point, has clearly identified this person, which is very specific. This is not a rule, of course, but the uncertainty and the unexpectedness of the arrival of a new baby does not fit the typical "a" pattern.
When you are waiting for a child, at least, you know the child has been identified and described by others before you.
She is expecting a child - Está esperando a un niño.
From what I have read, the personal a is not supposed to be used with indefinite articles, but some people use it anyway.
Samdie
In English its easy to distinguish whether someone is expecting someone or waiting for someone since wait and expect are very different verbs. I can "expect someone" but not "expect for someone". Vice versa I can "wait for someone" but not "wait someone". All I'm saying is that I cannot easily make that same distinction in Spanish and there is a slight but noticeable difference between expecting someone and just waiting for someone.
None of your examples include a personal "a" since none of them include direct objects so how is that an answer to my question ?
And since when does the verb decide whether a direct object takes a personal "a" or not ? Isn't this based on the type of direct object instead ?
"I expect a friend"
The friend is the direct object and definitely a person so it should be
"Espero a un amigo", which could very well mean "I'm waiting for a friend". You are saying that there is a rule that says if esperar means expect then the personal a is skipped ?
Lazarus/Gfreed
Thanks for your answers ! It appears you are the only two who actually understand the problem.
To sum up what I think I heard.
An unborn baby simply isn't familiar or known enough yet to require a personal "a". I could think of a few folks in the South who would violently argue about that 
but I won't.
That was my question and I believe it was stated pretty clearly in the subject.
Here some examples I hope are correct.
If a woman is pregnant : She is expecting a child - Está esperando un niño.
If a woman works in a nursery and is expecting a child to be dropped off by its parents any moment. She's known this child for a while.
She is expecting a child - Está esperando a un niño.
However, this could also mean "She is waiting for a child" and we have to let context work that out. Did I get this right ? Is it true that the child is a direct object in both versions ?
Perhaps you would like to explain the logic behind your original English sentences. "She is expecting/awaiting a baby." and "She is waiting for a child."
Why "for" in the second and not the first. Would you say "She waiting for a baby." to mean that she is pregnant and will soon deliver (I certainly wouldn't. The "for" would sound very odd in this context). Similarly the omission of "for" would be most strange in the second sentence. So you have two quite different constructions in English (as you do in Spanish). Apparently, the difference in English causes you no problem but you feel that the difference in Spanish requires some sort of justification.
Look again. Esperar to wait uses a personal A, esperar to expect does NOT use a personal a, in this circumstance.
Espero que vengas. NO A. I hope you come. Espero a que vengas. I am waiting for you to come.
Esperar means three things, hope wait expect. WIth the A = wait. No A = expect / hope. in most cases.
Very simple to me but there may be a grammatical rule about it. I expect it is because to expect / hope are not direct actions, whereas waiting is. But there likely more to it.
Edit: rewrote it to better express what I mean so that everyone will understand where I am coming from.
jeezzle
I dont see your answer to the question ? The fact remains that the baby she is expecting is a direct object so why no personal a here ?
Esperar a = wait for. Esperar = to expect. They are expecting a baby. Está esperando a un niño = She is waiting for a child.
