The personal 'a' - an example

Question

I was taught to think of the personal 'a' as a sign of respect, and to use it in situations where a person was mentioned where I would want to show respect. Here's an example of a headline where the personal 'a' is being used but with regard to a stranger where respect is irrelevant.

El FBI mata a un amigo de uno de los autores del ataque de Boston

Is this misuse of the personal 'a' or was my teacher exaggerating the respect thing?

Thanks for the question. It's always good to get clarification from different sources. - 0095ca4c, May 23, 2013

Answer 1

"a" is used in front of direct object pronouns( irrespective of whether u know or respect the person)

Here "un amigo" is a direct object pronoun , hence proceded by "a"

This makes more sense. There are people teaching something completely different. Perhaps they mentioned direct objects and I just forgot but to me it can only unncessarily complicate matters to talk about respect. - Pablo-Peligroso, May 23, 2013

Answer 2

What RRahman said,

I think your teacher did overplay the respect angle. I believe some teachers attempt to use that as a memory aid for direct objects that are humans-pets etc, as a way to help you remember to use it for those indirect objects, vs inanimate direct objects, but no, respect does not truly enter into it. If it´s a specific person (known or not, and respected or not) or a known/cared-about animal or pet, then it get the personal ´a´, period.

hth roger

p.s. I just happened to be going over an exercize on this last night, and realized I myself needed some work on using it for a specific, but unknown person (al hombre, i.e. one does use the ´a´) vs just some unspecific guy (doesn´t use the ´a´).