When to use al

Kimberly W.A1Kwiziq community member

When to use al

In this sentence: Ana quiere al hombre al que yo vi. 

Why is the first al used? I thought al meant “to the” or “at the”.  It doesn’t make sense to say, Ana loves to the man.

Thank you in advance for your help,

Kim

Asked 1 week ago
SilviaKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hola Kimberley

Great question! In the sentence "Ana quiere al hombre al que yo vi", the first "al" is a contraction of "a" (to) + "el" (the), and it’s used because the verb "querer" in this case means "to love" or "to care for", and it requires the use of a direct object when referring to people.

In Spanish, when referring to a specific person or people, we need to use the "personal a". This doesn't translate directly into English, but it’s a grammatical rule. The "personal a" is used before the direct object when the object is a person. So, "al" here is simply the combination of "a" + "el" before the noun "hombre" (man).

So, the sentence "Ana quiere al hombre" literally translates to "Ana loves the man", but grammatically in Spanish, the "a" is necessary before "el hombre" because he is the direct object and a person.

I hope this clears things up!

Saludos

Silvia

When to use al

In this sentence: Ana quiere al hombre al que yo vi. 

Why is the first al used? I thought al meant “to the” or “at the”.  It doesn’t make sense to say, Ana loves to the man.

Thank you in advance for your help,

Kim

Sign in to submit your answer

Don't have an account yet? Join today

Ask a question

Find your Spanish level for FREE

Test your Spanish to the CEFR standard

Find your Spanish level
I'll be right with you...