What does the "Personal A" Communicate?
What does the "Personal A" communicate to the listener?
I have read a number of posts on the Personal A, and while they all do a great job of explaining the rules, they don't help me understand what the Personal A communicates to the listener (which the lack thereof would not).
Also, as a matter of pride, I tried to write this question in Spanish, but found it to be beyond my skill level; how would I ask this question in Spanish?
6 Answers
To make things simple, after discussing the personal "a" I tell my students that from the English speakers standpoint, it means absolutely nothing--it just has to "be there".
I'm learning in Hebrew that they use the particle "et" just before all direct objects. And again it doesn't mean anything. It just has to "be there."
I don´t know that I can add anything new to what you have already seen as this is just a basic grammar rule that requires using the personal A for people and pets who are close to you when following a verb. Obviously, if you don´t use it your sentence will sound very strange because using the personal A is a basic as breathing.
There are, however, times when it is not used, ie: a group of people called by their group, ie: Busco dos policías que me ayuden con un problema de narcotraficantes en mi vecindario (I´m looking for two policemen to help me with a drug-dealer problem in my neighborhood).
What you have asked: ¿Que es lo te que dice/significa la A personal?
The personal " a " is a sign of respect, connection or affection. It is a connotation which can be appreciated, but not translated.
I'm going to go out on a wing here and suggest it might be a throwback to the Latin vocative case. I don't really know much about the Spanish personal 'a' except that it exists. However, I did a little Latin at school, so encountered the vocative, which was explained as being equivalent in English to saying something like, 'hey, Marcus'. The vocative also continues to exist in other languages, including Scots Gaelic, in which it is used in some instances to refer to people. For example, the Gaelic for 'Mary' is 'Màiri' (pronounced almost exactly like the English verb 'marry' ('casarse')), but when addressing Màiri in certain circumstances you must do so in the vocative whereby she becomes 'Mhàri', thus changing the pronunciation - the 'm' becomes 'mh' which in Gaelic is pronounced like English 'v', hence the name sounds like 'varry'. In Spanish, by contrast, you would simply put an 'a' in front of 'màiri', thus 'mhàiri' = 'a màiri'.
Just a thought...
The personal a is necessary in order to avoid confusion about the meaning of a sentence. Because Spanish sentence word order is so flexible, it it possible to have sentences in Subject - Verb - Object order, which is most common, but also in Object - Verb - Subject or Verb - Object - Subject. Because of this, if both Object and Subject are people the presence of the personal a is the only way of making absolutely sure that the listener knows who the subject is and who the object is.
Here is a simple example:
Maria vio Juan. (incorrect) Who saw who?
Maria vio a Juan. (correct) Maria saw Juan, emphasis is on Maria doing the seeing.
A Juan lo vio Maria. (also correct) Maria saw Juan, emphasis on Juan being seen.
In fact if I were translating this into English I would probably say "John was seen by Maria" in order to change the emphasis to Juan in English as was done with the Spanish sentence. So it becomes a passive sentence in English although it does not use the passive ser + participle construction in Spanish.
Note that in the last sentence an "extra" direct object pronoun is added for good measure. This it a rule of Spanish grammar. If the direct object occurs before verb the "redundant DOP" is required. It makes it very clear that you have started with the direct object and that you didn't start the sentence with "A Juan" possibly meaning "to Juan."
By the way, it is often said that the personal "a" is not translated in English. While this is true in a literal sense...there is no English word that appears in the English sentence and represents the personal "a" ... it is not true in the grammatical sense.
Without the personal "a" the sentence "Maria dio Juan" COULD be translated as either person seeing the other, or maybe it is supposed to mean that they saw each other? Because of this ambiguity is in an non-grammatical sentence (incorrect). With the personal "a" it becomes clear, when translating to English who saw who. So in this sense the personal "a" IS USED when translating into English.
