Quick question about omitting prepositions
1
vote
I was doing some exercises in a book and the example was "Yo espero el avión"
Why wasn't there a por in between espero and el.
2899 views
updated Aug 22, 2011
posted by ionisme
2 Answers
3
votes
Esperar means "to wait for", not "to wait", in this case.
updated Aug 22, 2011
edited by lorenzo9
posted by lorenzo9
Thanks makes perfect sense now - ionisme, Aug 22, 2011
3
votes
"Esperar" is transitive in Spanish, so it doesn't need a preposition. "To wait" in English is not transitive, so it needs a preposition like "for", "to", "by", "until"... The question could have been asked from the opposite perspective and ask "Why do you have to use a preposition after "wait", if "esperar" does not need one?
updated Aug 22, 2011
posted by lazarus1907
good answer! - billygoat, Aug 22, 2011
You don't need to use a preposition after wait in English: "He waited ten minutes for the bus." (The verb wait has no indirect object in that sentence.) - lorenzo9, Aug 22, 2011
