'como' vs 'a'
I'm used to como being used for as like as in se ve como Mel Gibson or nadar como un pez. So when I recently read in a book se parece a su padre it took me a moment to comprehend as I've always read the Spanish a as the English to or at
I wouldn't ever think to say Nadar a un pez so is there something unique in this sentence structure as relates to a relative, as in: he takes after his father?
btw I'm studying Iberian Spanish
6 Answers
Yes, here in Spain we don't use:
se ve como su padre
we say "se parece a alguien"
In this case, as taniel has already told you, "parecerse" is a verb always followed by "a" independent of the object .
se parece a una vaca
se parece a Pedro.
Parecer however, is not. Here it means : to seem
Parece ser una mujer guapa.
parece que es una mujer
Hi. The 'a' doesn't mean like. Paracerse a means to look like, but you can't break it down into pieces ("to look" + "like").
I suggest that you look at this page. It says
In Spanish, many verbs must be followed by a preposition, which may or may not correspond to the preposition (if any) used in English.
And it lists a lot of verbs that are followed by 'a'.
I believe this is called the "personal 'a' ". Some verbs require the "a" when you are doing it to a person rather than a thing or place. The example I remember most is "visitar."
"Voy a visitar España" = "I am going to visit Spain"
"Voy a visitar a mi padre" = I am going to visit my father"
The "a" doesn't translate exactly, but it is always used when you are visiting a person.
(Of course, I may be wrong.) 
Each verb, adjective or even noun in Spanish or English takes a different preposition, sometimes more than one. There is no definite rule why we use one preposition or another although some prepositions are or sound better than others. It's a matter of use.
Example:
be afraid of (you can't say be afraid from)
be interested in (not interested of)
depend on or upon ( and not depend of)
In Spanish:
tener miedo de (same preposition as in English)
estar interesado en (same preposition as in English)
depender de (different preposition from English)
Here are prepositions that differ :
Parecerse a (look like, seem like)
Felicitar por (congratulate on)
Pensar en (think of or about)
etc.etc.etc.
There seem to be conflicting answers here regarding the requirement of an "a" following parecerse.
The link provided by jtdaniel indicates that an "a" should be used with any object / noun.
Polenta was basically saying the same thing, by referring to several Spanish verbs that required prepositions, including paracerse a.
However, Winkfish, suggested that it was just a "personal a" which means it would only need to be used with a known human, pet, etc. and that it is not a requirement of the verb itself.
Heidita gave the following example:
Se parece a una vaca
This is NOT a "personal a" since it is just any old cow, it implies the preposition is required by the verb.
Having visited several other websites, I am increasingly convinced that the preposition "a" IS required by the verb. (as jtdaniel and Polenta said, and Heidita implied) In other words....parecerse a algo and parecerse a alguin are correct while parecerse algo is not correct. If all this is true, then the "a" is not a "personal a"
Hey, thanks all!
It looks like I started off on the wrong foot from the off here as I took parece to be a conjugation of parecer, rather than of parecerse. This is a totally new verb to me and after looking at jtaniel's link and a few other resources online I can see how this means 'resemble' rather than 'seems' -- and that I can do away with the 'como' clause here.
So, let's me see...
¿Quién es ese hombre ahí?
Hmmm, parece ser mi padre (parecer)
¡Vaya! Se parece a Mel Gibson (parecerse)
Am I getting closer?
