Endomondo and 'a'
Hey,
I know there are a few meanings of word 'a'.
It is usually used somewhere in the middle of sentence. But there are some cases when used at the beginning also. I know it happens when talking about time like "a la una" or date and about values like temperature, prize etc.
Recently I discovered on Endomondo such info: "A (specific person) le gusta". Is it correct?
4 Answers
Yes, it is correct. It can be anywhere in The sentence, and it's usually before the indirect object when it's a person or a personified thing. In your sentence "A x le gusta", x is The indirect object (and "le" refers to it).
Yes, correct.
All persons go with the "a", technically an object.
A mi me gusta, a ti te gusta, a María le gusta, a Pedro le gusta...
In your sentence what follows the "a" is an indirect object. The "le" is an indirect object pronoun. Unlike English, many times in Spanish a spelled out indirect object and it's related pronoun both occur in the same sentence.
While the great majority of indirect objects in Spanish are human beings......animals and even inanimate objects can also be indirect objects. All Indirect Objects, even if they are inanimate, require an "a" preceding them. Direct Objects require a "personal a" if they are human beings, known to exist, or personalized animals (such as pets).
Example of an inanimate indirect object:
A la sopa le faltan 10 minutos. (from SD dictionary)
The soup needs another 10 minutes.
In the Spanish sentence, 10 minutes is the subject, there is no direct object, the soup is a written out indirect object and "le" is the indirect object pronoun.
As you mentioned, there are many other uses of "a" in Spanish. There are even many other uses of "a" at the start of a sentence other than those you mention.
Welcome to the forum. It is great you have now completed the language side of the profile so we know your standard of English is good enough to understand complex answers but your Spanish is still new.
Buena suerte.
