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Question by matt: how do you use a in spanish?
I’m using rosetta stone and the use of “a” confuses me. For example in the sentence “las mujeres juegan al golf” why is the al there why not just “el golf” or even “golf” can someone explain this to me
Another sentence that this confuses me in is “Al nino no le gustan el tenis”
These sentences are directly from rosetta stone level 1 so i’m assuming they are correct
I realize that al is a contraction but i just don’t understand why the “a” is present in those cases
Best answer:
Answer by Pariss
A capital a as in ahh!!!
What do you think? Answer below!
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it really depends how u use it but its really supposed to say ” el nino no le gustan el tenis”
“a” in Spanish means “to”
“al” is a contraction between “a+ el” and “al” means “to the.”
Sometimes you have to use “to” or “the” or both in Spanish, in occasions where in English, you wouldn’t have to. All languages are different that way, so you’ll just have to memorize that.
“las mujeres juegan al golf”
literally translates to:
“the women play to the golf”
The reasoning behind this, is that when referring to playing a sport or an activiy, in Spanish, they’ll use the “al” construction
“Van a jugar al fútbol.”
“They’ll go play soccer.”
“Al niño no le gusta el ténis.”
literally translates to:
“To the child, no him like the tennis.”
In this case, the “al” is used similarly to how in English we wuold say ” that child,” in Spanish “al niño no le gusta” means “that child doesn’t like.” While in Spanish, you could literally say “A ese niño no le gusta” to say “that child doesn’t like” you cuold also just say “Al niño” to express that same idea.
“Al niño” literally translates to “to the child”
—
Like I said, every language expresses themselves differently. That’s how they order their sentences in Spanish. They put “to” in places where English speakers would not put to.
“Al” is a contraction (a + el), whenever you need an article after the preposition you say “AL”.
For most cases, you can say either “jugar + a” or just “jugar”, so in your example you can say “jugar al golf” or simply “jugar golf”.
Okay. Let’s start with the fact that Rosetta Stone has its uses, but grammar, it’s not terribly strong on.
There are several uses for the word, and they don’t always make sense…cause they don’t necessarily match up to English, and you can’t just translate them.
First, A means TO or AT, (and sometimes on). “al golf” or al ANY sport, is only used in some places. Used to be correct, but many countries have dropped it. Learn it, use whatever people around you use. Most of the Mexicans I know don’t use it. Everyone in Spain, did. You just play AL sports.
Al niño…this is the “personal a”. As far as I’m familiar, this is used everywhere. And it causes some differences between American and European Spanish, but that’s a different story.
– When you have a direct object which is a person, you put A in front of it. Period. You don’t translate it.
(el niño is the direct object of Tennis pleasing…in Spanish, and a person, hence, need for personal A. It kills me when first year students who don’t quite get it tell you the experts are wrong).
Sometimes, you have to put A after a conjugated verb, before an infinitive. You don’t translate it. You have to memorize which verbs take a, que, de, etc.
Voy a ir…I’m gonna go.
Asisto (I assist) a enseñar…I help to teach.
Tengo que practicar…I have to practice
Acabo de regresar…I just returned.
Etc.
Try checking the lesson on spanish.about.com
Also, look up the topic here:
http://www.colby.edu/~bknelson/SLC/
And here:
http://studyspanish.com/index.htm
Bookmark those. Good reviews.