afecta (a)
Hello could someone please shine some light on the verb afectar please.
I don't understand when afectar needs the proposition "a" after it. I have checked on the dictionary part of the site but I am still confused.
Take for example if i say: The recession has an effect on young people is it: La crisis economica afecta a los jovenes?
and if I'm saying the recession effects young people, is it: La crisis economica afecta la juventud?
3 Answers
Simple use of the personal a. If the direct object is a person, use the personal a. La crisis afecta a la juventud.
Not that simple. It is used with objects too:
la previa censura afecta a todos los impresos cuya circulación se desee (Cela: Nobel prize of literature, ex-member of the RAE)
La que afecta a los movimientos voluntarios, como en la tabes dorsal (Diccionario de la RAE)
This is not just a case of "personal a", but also to remove ambiguities. It is typical of this kind of verbs.
The "a" with this verb is used to avoid ambiguities. A sentence like:
María afectó Juan. (????)
can be read as "María affected Juan" or "Juan affected María", due to the flexibility of the language. The affected person (the object) should be indicated with "a".
With things and living things is not that important most of the time, because it is easy to interpret:
La humedad afecta (a) las plantas.
However, even in these cases the sentence can be ambiguous:
El calcio afecta el silicio. (????)
"La crisis afecta la juventud", somehow, sounds weird.
Bottom line: the preposition is not generally omitted.
Simple use of the personal a. If the direct object is a person, use the personal a. La crisis afecta a la juventud.
