Oh I can't believe that so far in my studies this was never highlighted by my teacher! And this is so important. Most of the times I didn't use "a" while it turns out that most of the times I actually should use it. Great video.
thank you so much professor jason! so much easier to understand as opposed to my spanish teacher, who i can't understand for the life of me due to her thick spanish accent.
Yay! I love when I see a new lesson from you! Speaking for myself, in order for me to learn, I need to understand the "why" behind a sentence. I need to know the grammar in order for the usage to make any sense. For example, the subjunctive would have been absolutely incomprehensible without understanding the grammatical aspect. Anyway, I just love your videos and I wish you made tons more :)))
Love your humour. Good examples, kept it simple and easy to understand while illustrating the rules when/when not to use "a personal". Great video as always.
Thanks for this video- it was easy to understand and very eye-opening. It's actually an easy subject, but I NEVER use the "a personal!" Now I will! Gracias!
Excellent question/point... upon a bit of further research I'd say that in general that's correct, but I think there is a growing tendency to omit it before inanimate objects/places. Thanks for the comment!
proffesor Jackson.. great great lesson, You really made it clear.. want to hear how good it was? Im hebrew natural speaker, not english, and I understood your lesson very well wich means you used in english simple and bright!! thank you very very much
@zocurtis Thanks, glad you like my channel. Most of my videos are not designed to teach the language through grammar. Believe me, I am very well aware of the lastest developments in language acquisition and pedagogy. I also do not believe in teaching grammar first. But grammar is helpful once people begin learning to use the language. At that point they want clear, concise explanations, which is what I aim to provide.
Thanks for the lesson! This "personal a" seems to be all in all quite intuitive, but one needs to pay attention to the exceptions, of course, like "tengo un hermano". You have 4 sisters - wow! Quite a big family.
Necesito saber cuando yo necesito usar el "que" después de tener o otros ejemplos de los verbos. Usted puede hacer una pelicula sobre esto? Usted es el hombre! Jonathan
This a-personal presents a challenge, to me. I understand its use in this lesson, very easy. As pointed out in other comments, one can say: Voy a estudiar. Thats another use of the «a» word, for the future tense. But going further, in this lesson is used «¿A quién invitaste?» Great, but in the question: «¿A quién buscas?», «a quién» means «whom». ------------------------- Now, we have «a» as presented in this lesson,(the a-personal), used in «going to"», & as in «whom, to whom, or for whom». Also, I believe there's a verb for that uses «ha» for a verb tense, this will sound the same as «a». ----------- I hope I'm making sense here. It would seem that the issue I speak of requires some attention, as «a» and «ha» can be used as several different parts of speech.
+lionsareus Not really. "A" is always a preposition in Spanish indicating motion to or towards someone or something. Its use in the periphrastic future construction "ir a" (as in "voy a estudiar") is strictly a matter of idiom, and it is unique to Spanish, as I do not believe that any other Romance language uses "a" (or in French, "à") in this manner. Likewise, the personal "a" is just a matter of idiom; it is not meant to be translated literally (since English doesn't use "to" this way). As for the auxiliary verb "haber" which uses the form "ha" as part of the perfect tenses, that has no relation to the preposition "a," even though they are pronounced the same. They have entirely different origins and uses, and one would never be mistaken for the other, even in speech.
Muy buen video. En el ejemplo de Yo invite a Julian y a Norma (6:06 - 6:40), no es estrictamente necesario el segundo "a" en Norma. Example "Yo invite a Julian y Norma" es una forma correcta en decirlo y es mas común para cuando te comuniques con un hablante nativo de español aunque tu ejemplo tampoco estuvo mal solo que no es tan ocupado. Saludos desde Chile (South America)
@raydenovo In Spanish, there are lots of different "a"s all over the place... In your example, the "a" is part of the future construction IR+A+UNCONJUGATED VERB, so it just has to be there... Voy a estudiar, Tú vas a dormir, etc... hope that helps!
Professor Jason, although most of your videos are excellent and I certainly consider you probably the best Spanish and Portuguese teach on RUclips . . . I don't understand what made you add the EXTREMELY NOISY introductory "MUSIC" to some your Spanish tutorial videos in the series, including this one. I just can't use this video and the others with the JARRING, EAR-SPLITTING SO-CALLED MUSIC. I only use your quieter videos or the ones which you go directly to the lesson without any annoying racket at the outset!
Thanks for the in depth explanations. I often leave out some of the details when explaining this. The idea of personified nouns such as one's country was something I never learned, and also personifying family pets was never presented to me as personification. I just knew that families often treat their pets like people. Great stuff! Hope you're still answering questions. See mine on whether gustar uses the personal a when you add 'a mi' or is it a preposition only? Is 'me' a d.o.?
@zocurtis I am familiar with lingosteve and very versant in theories like Krashen's and many others. But I am offering a different service. People come back to my lessons time and time again to have their doubts resolved. Even if you learn in an immersion environment, people eventually want to know why (most people). That's just one of the many things I provide. I use language communities myself and am a big believer in self-teaching. I taught myself fluent Portuguese... but this helps too :)
@zocurtis Remember, I also have numerous lessons that do not focus on grammar but model simple, useful phrases. Grammar is just one aspect of language-learning, but it is a crucial part. All major theories of language acquisition recognize the place for grammar, to varying degrees and in different ways. These lessons are primarily meant to reinforce other classes people may be taking or to resolve concerns. I am the last word on Spanish :) JK
Gracias por el video. I knew that the personal a is not used with tener, but I read a children's book today in which it wasn't used with necesitar. I thought it was a mistake in the book, but then I decided to look online to see if necesitar could be used without the personal a, as you addressed in your video. Could it be that necesitar is an exception like tener? Or can you think of an instance in which you would use the personal a with necesitar. Thanks! -Lisa
Gracias Profesor Jason por tus videos. son muy utiles. I wonder of the personal is used when referring to oneself, as in the example "I saw myself in the mirror yesterday and didn't realize how much I look like my father". Me vi o a me vi ayer.......?
I read in a Spanish Textbook that the personal "a" could be used with most proper ounsk which includes the names of places or peronalized things: such as No conozco a Brasil. Please explain if this is correct or not.
Professor, is the rule the same in Portuguese as it is in Spanish? I seem to vaguely recall that Portuguese also requires the personal "a" (if so, it and Spanish are the only Romance languages that do, although Romanian has a similar construction with the preposition "pe"), but I'm not so sure about that anymore.
Professor Jason Obrigado. I thought you had told me that before, but for some reason I distinctly remember reading that the personal "a" applies in Portuguese as well as in Spanish.
Great explanation! Professor Jason. But what I am gonna ask is that some said that the persona; "A" is used when the OBJECT of a verb is A person, so we place "A" after a verb. What about a thing. For instance; 1. Espera_____el autubus. 2. Paco mira___la televicion. So do we still need "A" in the blanks.
+Irfan lee No. As Professor Jason explained, the personal "a" is ONLY used for direct objects that are specific persons or pronouns or for animals that we think of in a personal fashion, such as a pet. It is NEVER used when the direct object is an inanimate object. So we would say "Espera el autobus" and "Paco mira la televisión."
Professor Jason, I really liked the video, thank you very much. But could you clarify the use of the personal "a" in the following phrase as far as the second time "a" is used?....."Para invitar a alguien a hacer algo..." I don't understand the use of the second "a". Thank you.
+Lawrence Malcheff The second "a" is used to show the purpose for which "someone" is being invited. It is a use of the preposition that is completely unrelated to the personal "a."
prof. Jason thanks for this video I learned a lot but I have a problem can I say ( yo he hablado con a pablo ) or ( yo busco a alguin para hacer algo ) or just say ( yo busco a alguin a hacer algo can you feed me back and thanks
+abdallah junaidallah In your first example, you would say "(Yo) he hablado con Pablo" (remember that Spanish prefers to avoid using the subject pronoun when it is obvious from the verb form or the context who is performing the action, unless it's necessary to show emphasis or contrast or to avoid ambiguity). Using the personal "a" would be incorrect because Pablo is not the direct object of the verb "hablar" but the object of the preposition "con." Therefore, the personal "a" is not used. As for the second example, I would say "Busco a alguien que haga algo para mí." "I am looking for someone to do something for me."
Esta lección aclaró cómo usar el personal a en español. eres un excelente maestro y te agradezco mucho todo tu esfuerzo con estas lecciones.
As with your other videos, you are so very well organized and your presentation is very admirable. Thanks so much for your contribution!
Thank you!
Best explanation I have heard yet for the personal A, thank you
My confusion was resolved right in the beginning when you mentioned the object directly follows the verb without any prepositions added. Thank you.
I have been trying to learn Spanish for quite a while .. thanks to your videos I am starting to understand better
Thank you very much for your presentations, Professor Jason. They are very helpful and I always enjoy following them. Thanks! Greetings from Malta.
Oh I can't believe that so far in my studies this was never highlighted by my teacher! And this is so important. Most of the times I didn't use "a" while it turns out that most of the times I actually should use it. Great video.
Wow. You explain in a very clear way. So much better than my college professor. Thank you!
thank you so much professor jason! so much easier to understand as opposed to my spanish teacher, who i can't understand for the life of me due to her thick spanish accent.
Thanx again for making your material available.
Thank you Professor Jason!!! When you reiterated 'a is used for a specific or definite person/pet, it clicked. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Yay! I love when I see a new lesson from you! Speaking for myself, in order for me to learn, I need to understand the "why" behind a sentence. I need to know the grammar in order for the usage to make any sense. For example, the subjunctive would have been absolutely incomprehensible without understanding the grammatical aspect. Anyway, I just love your videos and I wish you made tons more :)))
Excellent lesson on the personal " a" Thank you!
Such a little letter and yes, I've been confused forever about that one. But, with your wonderful lesson, it is so much clearer now! Thank you :)
Love your humour. Good examples, kept it simple and easy to understand while illustrating the rules when/when not to use "a personal". Great video as always.
just started to revise for A2's.. looks like your'e going to be my saviour!
I am grateful, Professor Jason.
You are an amazing teacher... merci pour cette bonne leçon.....
Very helpful! I know your videos are quite old, but still incredibly useful. Thanks!
Now that you mention it, they are old! :-) I should maybe re-shoot some of them! 480P? Oh boy...
That would be great! I've always been a big fan!
Thanks Mr. Jason! Useful as usual ❤️
@cosmetica529 ah... you're the best cosmetica ;-) thanks for watching and commenting!
Scratching my head for a couple of weeks when this 'a' keeps popping up on Duolingo and could not make any sense of it, until now. Terrific, thanks.
Thanks for this video- it was easy to understand and very eye-opening. It's actually an easy subject, but I NEVER use the "a personal!" Now I will! Gracias!
Outstanding lesson!!!
You are aMAzing! Thanks for taking the time to make these videos.
Excellent question/point... upon a bit of further research I'd say that in general that's correct, but I think there is a growing tendency to omit it before inanimate objects/places. Thanks for the comment!
Very helpful -- well done.
proffesor Jackson.. great great lesson, You really made it clear..
want to hear how good it was? Im hebrew natural speaker, not english, and I understood your lesson very well wich means you used in english simple and bright!!
thank you very very much
Excellent explanation. ¡Gracias!
Thank you, always informative and interesting ans direct :)
Thank you, you have been a big help to me.
Thanks a lot, I finally understand this, just in time for my test too.
Thank you, you did a great job. Jack
Great video , Jason, thanks! I love just reading and guessing at Spanish words, but I am a bit lazy learning grammar. Your videos are very helpful.
Thank you sooooo much! I have my Spanish final tomorrow lol and that was like the only thing I didn't know
una explicacion muy clara, gracias
@zocurtis Thanks, glad you like my channel. Most of my videos are not designed to teach the language through grammar. Believe me, I am very well aware of the lastest developments in language acquisition and pedagogy. I also do not believe in teaching grammar first. But grammar is helpful once people begin learning to use the language. At that point they want clear, concise explanations, which is what I aim to provide.
Thanks for the lesson! This "personal a" seems to be all in all quite intuitive, but one needs to pay attention to the exceptions, of course, like "tengo un hermano".
You have 4 sisters - wow! Quite a big family.
This was very helpful Jason, thank you!
Necesito saber cuando yo necesito usar el "que" después de tener o otros ejemplos de los verbos. Usted puede hacer una pelicula sobre esto? Usted es el hombre!
Jonathan
This a-personal presents a challenge, to me. I understand its use in this lesson, very easy. As pointed out in other comments, one can say: Voy a estudiar. Thats another use of the «a» word, for the future tense. But going further, in this lesson is used «¿A quién invitaste?»
Great, but in the question: «¿A quién buscas?», «a quién» means «whom».
-------------------------
Now, we have «a» as presented in this lesson,(the a-personal), used in «going to"», & as in «whom, to whom, or for whom». Also, I believe there's a verb for that uses «ha» for a verb tense, this will sound the same as «a».
-----------
I hope I'm making sense here. It would seem that the issue I speak of requires some attention, as «a» and «ha» can be used as several different parts of speech.
+lionsareus Not really. "A" is always a preposition in Spanish indicating motion to or towards someone or something. Its use in the periphrastic future construction "ir a" (as in "voy a estudiar") is strictly a matter of idiom, and it is unique to Spanish, as I do not believe that any other Romance language uses "a" (or in French, "à") in this manner.
Likewise, the personal "a" is just a matter of idiom; it is not meant to be translated literally (since English doesn't use "to" this way).
As for the auxiliary verb "haber" which uses the form "ha" as part of the perfect tenses, that has no relation to the preposition "a," even though they are pronounced the same. They have entirely different origins and uses, and one would never be mistaken for the other, even in speech.
Muy buen video.
En el ejemplo de Yo invite a Julian y a Norma (6:06 - 6:40), no es estrictamente necesario el segundo "a" en Norma. Example "Yo invite a Julian y Norma" es una forma correcta en decirlo y es mas común para cuando te comuniques con un hablante nativo de español aunque tu ejemplo tampoco estuvo mal solo que no es tan ocupado.
Saludos desde Chile (South America)
This was really helpful
very helpful. thank u so much
Es una cosa muy facil pero muy importante. gracias a ti
@raydenovo In Spanish, there are lots of different "a"s all over the place... In your example, the "a" is part of the future construction IR+A+UNCONJUGATED VERB, so it just has to be there... Voy a estudiar, Tú vas a dormir, etc... hope that helps!
Professor Jason, although most of your videos are excellent and I certainly consider you probably the best Spanish and Portuguese teach on RUclips . . . I don't understand what made you add the EXTREMELY NOISY introductory "MUSIC" to some your Spanish tutorial videos in the series, including this one. I just can't use this video and the others with the JARRING, EAR-SPLITTING SO-CALLED MUSIC. I only use your quieter videos or the ones which you go directly to the lesson without any annoying racket at the outset!
Thanks for the in depth explanations. I often leave out some of the details when explaining this. The idea of personified nouns such as one's country was something I never learned, and also personifying family pets was never presented to me as personification. I just knew that families often treat their pets like people. Great stuff! Hope you're still answering questions. See mine on whether gustar uses the personal a when you add 'a mi' or is it a preposition only? Is 'me' a d.o.?
@zocurtis I am familiar with lingosteve and very versant in theories like Krashen's and many others. But I am offering a different service. People come back to my lessons time and time again to have their doubts resolved. Even if you learn in an immersion environment, people eventually want to know why (most people). That's just one of the many things I provide. I use language communities myself and am a big believer in self-teaching. I taught myself fluent Portuguese... but this helps too :)
@zocurtis Remember, I also have numerous lessons that do not focus on grammar but model simple, useful phrases. Grammar is just one aspect of language-learning, but it is a crucial part. All major theories of language acquisition recognize the place for grammar, to varying degrees and in different ways. These lessons are primarily meant to reinforce other classes people may be taking or to resolve concerns. I am the last word on Spanish :) JK
Great video.
Thank you!
Gracias por el video. I knew that the personal a is not used with tener, but I read a children's book today in which it wasn't used with necesitar. I thought it was a mistake in the book, but then I decided to look online to see if necesitar could be used without the personal a, as you addressed in your video. Could it be that necesitar is an exception like tener? Or can you think of an instance in which you would use the personal a with necesitar. Thanks! -Lisa
Again, excellent ...
Gracias Profesor Jason por tus videos. son muy utiles.
I wonder of the personal is used when referring to oneself, as in the example "I saw myself in the mirror yesterday and didn't realize how much I look like my father".
Me vi o a me vi ayer.......?
Thank you
I read in a Spanish Textbook that the personal "a" could be used with most proper ounsk which includes the names of places or peronalized things: such as No conozco a Brasil.
Please explain if this is correct or not.
@seiferzion muchas gracias, amiga ;-*
@homebldr11 nope, Portuguese does not use the personal a: Eu conheço ela. Eu estou vendo Osvaldo.
This was very helpful! I've never seen this disgusted in any of my textbooks.
Excellent
@languagenow De nada. ¡Sigue así!
@carmensandiego87 hahaha... that comment made my day! Yeah, a little bit! muchas gracias ;-)
very helpful. thanks
Excellent. Thanks.
Glad you're enjoying my lessons!
@jareid2507 Lucky! Thanks for your message :) Enjoy Mexico!
Professor, is the rule the same in Portuguese as it is in Spanish? I seem to vaguely recall that Portuguese also requires the personal "a" (if so, it and Spanish are the only Romance languages that do, although Romanian has a similar construction with the preposition "pe"), but I'm not so sure about that anymore.
no personal a required in Portuguese :)
Professor Jason Obrigado. I thought you had told me that before, but for some reason I distinctly remember reading that the personal "a" applies in Portuguese as well as in Spanish.
@panxofj Gracias por la aclaración, muy cierta!
Tengo una pregunta, mi profesoea dijo" veo a la tele" puedes explicar eso?
aj sur that's not correct in most dialects
"veo LA tele" es lo correcto
Great explanation! Professor Jason. But what I am gonna ask is that some said that the persona; "A" is used when the OBJECT of a verb is A person, so we place "A" after a verb. What about a thing. For instance;
1. Espera_____el autubus.
2. Paco mira___la televicion.
So do we still need "A" in the blanks.
+Irfan lee No. As Professor Jason explained, the personal "a" is ONLY used for direct objects that are specific persons or pronouns or for animals that we think of in a personal fashion, such as a pet. It is NEVER used when the direct object is an inanimate object. So we would say "Espera el autobus" and "Paco mira la televisión."
Professor Jason, I really liked the video, thank you very much. But could you clarify the use of the personal "a" in the following phrase as far as the second time "a" is used?....."Para invitar a alguien a hacer algo..." I don't understand the use of the second "a". Thank you.
+Lawrence Malcheff The second "a" is used to show the purpose for which "someone" is being invited. It is a use of the preposition that is completely unrelated to the personal "a."
thank you very much. working hard. that clears it up for me perfectly, or perfectamente.
Gracias
prof. Jason thanks for this video I learned a lot
but I have a problem
can I say ( yo he hablado con a pablo ) or ( yo busco a alguin para hacer algo ) or just say ( yo busco a alguin a hacer algo
can you feed me back and thanks
+abdallah junaidallah In your first example, you would say "(Yo) he hablado con Pablo" (remember that Spanish prefers to avoid using the subject pronoun when it is obvious from the verb form or the context who is performing the action, unless it's necessary to show emphasis or contrast or to avoid ambiguity). Using the personal "a" would be incorrect because Pablo is not the direct object of the verb "hablar" but the object of the preposition "con." Therefore, the personal "a" is not used.
As for the second example, I would say "Busco a alguien que haga algo para mí." "I am looking for someone to do something for me."
Why do you use personal ¨a¨ for countries? And do you use personal ¨a¨for pets 100% of the time?
ahora me arrepiento porque no pude ver tus videos antes
Graciassssssssssssssssssssssssss
Time to switch teachers :)
You look hot these days have you been working out?
dude. do you hang around mexicans a lot pepita lol